Community of Portuguese Language Countries

Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa
Community of Portuguese Language Countries

Headquarters

Lisbon, Portugal

Official language

Portuguese

Membership

Eight countries (plus three observers)

Leaders

Executive Secretariat

Luís de Matos Monteiro da Fonseca

Establishment

1996

Website
http://www.cplp.org

The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (Portuguese: Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, pron. IPA: [kumuni'dad(ɨ) duʃ pɐ'izɨʒ dɨ 'lĩgwɐ puɾtu'gezɐ] (EP), IPA: [komuni'dadʒi dus pa'iziz dʒi 'lĩgwa poɾtu'gezɐ] (BP); abbreviated to CPLP) is the intergovernmental organization for friendship among lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) nations where Portuguese is an official language. The Portuguese-speaking countries are home to more than 223 million people located across the globe. The CPLP nations have a combined area of about 10,772,000 square kilometres (4,159,000 sq mi).

1 The formation and member states
- 1.1 Members
- 1.2 Officially interested countries and regions
2 Summits
3 The importance of the CPLP
4 The CPLP System
- 4.1 Executive Secretaries
5 Main initiatives
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

The formation and member states

The CPLP was formed in 1996 with seven countries: Portugal, Brazil, a former colony in South America, and five former colonies in Africa — Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. East Timor joined the community in 2002 after gaining independence.

The CPLP is a bloc in the process of construction and the societies of the eight member nations have little knowledge of each other. One of the unique features of the CPLP is that its members are linked by a common language and shared cultural features, which form a bridge among countries separated by great distances and on different continents.

In 2005, during a meeting in Luanda, the ministers of culture of the eight countries declared the May 5 as the Lusophone Culture Day (Dia da Cultura Lusófona in Portuguese).

In July 2006, during the Bissau summit, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritius were admitted as Associate Observers^[1] along with 17 International associations and organizations considered as Consultative Observers. In 2008, Senegal was admitted as Associate Observer.

Members

Country	Status	Year joined	Official language	Continent	Population
Portugal	member	1996	Portuguese	Europe	10,584,344
Brazil	member	1996	Portuguese	South America	186,757,608
Angola	member	1996	Portuguese	Africa	15,941,000
Mozambique	member	1996	Portuguese	Africa	21,397,000
Cape Verde	member	1996	Portuguese	Africa	499,796
Guinea-Bissau	member	1996	Portuguese	Africa	1,586,000
São Tomé and Príncipe	member	1996	Portuguese	Africa	157,000
East Timor	member	2002	Portuguese and Tetum	Asia	1,115,000
Equatorial Guinea	associate observer	2006	Spanish and French	Africa	1,014,999
Mauritius	associate observer	2006	English	Africa	1,264,866
Senegal	associate observer	2008	French	Africa	11,658,000

Officially interested countries and regions

Country/Region	Interested Status	Official language	Continent	Population	Reference	Possible date of discussion
Andorra	associate member	Catalan	Europe	71,822	[1]	2010 - VIII CPLP Summit - Luanda
Morocco	associate member	Arabic	Africa	33,757,175	[2]	2010 - VIII CPLP Summit - Luanda
Philippines	associate member	Filipino and English	Asia	90,500,000	[3]	2010 - VIII CPLP Summit - Luanda
Galicia	member	Galician and Spanish	Europe	2,783,100	[4]	Pending Spanish Government approval
Macau	member	Portuguese, Chinese (Cantonese)	Asia	520,400	[5]	Pending Chinese Government approval
Malacca	associate member	Malay	Asia	733,000	[6]	Pending Malaysian Government approval
Goa	associate member	Konkani	Asia	1,400,000	[7]	Pending Indian Government approval
Croatia	associate member	Croatian	Europe	4,453,500	[8]	2012 - IX CPLP Summit
Romania	associate member	Romanian	Europe	22,246,862	[9]	2012 - IX CPLP Summit
Ukraine	associate member	Ukrainian	Europe	46,372,700	[10]	2012 - IX CPLP Summit

When the CPLP was formed, Equatorial Guinea asked for observer status. Equatorial Guinea was a Portuguese colony from the 15th to 18th centuries and has some territories where Portuguese-based creole languages are spoken and cultural connections with São Tomé and Príncipe and Portugal are felt. Also, the country has recently cooperated with Portuguese-speaking African countries and Brazil at an educational level. At the CPLP summit of July 2004, in São Tomé and Príncipe, the member states agreed to change the statutes of the community to accept states as associate observers. Equatorial Guinea is in discussion for full membership.^[2]

Mauritius, which was unknown to Europeans until the Portuguese sailed there and has strong connections with Mozambique, also obtained associate observer status in 2006.

Summits

Summit	Country	City	Year
I CPLP Summit	Portugal	Lisbon	1996
II CPLP Summit	Cape Verde	Praia	1998
III CPLP Summit	Mozambique	Maputo	2000
IV CPLP Summit	Brazil	Brasilia	2002
V CPLP Summit	São Tomé and Príncipe	São Tomé	2004
VI CPLP Summit	Guinea-Bissau	Bissau	2006
VII CPLP Summit	Portugal	Lisbon	2008
VIII CPLP Summit	Angola	Luanda	2010

The importance of the CPLP

Flags of the member states of the CPLP countries.

The Portuguese-speaking countries are home to more than 223 million people located across the globe but having cultural similarities and a shared history. The CPLP nations have a combined area of about 10,742,000 square kilometres (4,148,000 sq mi), which is larger than Canada.

Since its formation, the CPLP has helped to solve problems in São Tomé and Príncipe and in Guinea-Bissau, because of coups d'etat in those countries. These two problems were solved, and in fact, have helped these two countries to take economic reforms (in the case of São Tomé) and democratic ones (in the case of Guinea-Bissau).

The leaders of the CPLP believe that peace in Angola and Mozambique as well as East Timor's independence will favour the further development of the CPLP and a strengthening of multilateral cooperation.

Since many children in rural areas of Lusophone Africa and East Timor are out-of-school youth, the education officials in these regions seek help from Portugal and Brazil to increase the education to spread Portuguese fluency (like establishing Instituto Camões language center branches in main cities and rural towns), as Portuguese is becoming one of the main languages in Southern Africa, where it is also taught in Namibia and South Africa.

In many developing Portuguese-speaking nations, Portuguese is the language of government and commerce which means that Portuguese speaking people from African nations can work and communicate with others in different parts of the world, especially in Portugal and Brazil, where the economies are stronger. Many leaders of Portuguese-speaking nations in Africa are fearful that language standards do not meet the fluency required and are therefore making it compulsory in schools so that a higher degree of fluency is achieved and young Africans will be able to speak a world language that will help them later in life.

The CPLP System

The Organization’s Executive Secretariat is responsible for designing and implementing the CPLP's projects and initiatives. It is located in Lisbon, Portugal. The Executive Secretary has a two-year mandate, and can be re-elected only once.

The CPLP's guidelines and priorities are established by biannual Conference of Heads of State and the Organization’s plan of action is approved by the Council of Foreign Ministers, which meets every year.

There are also monthly meetings of the Permanent Steering Committee that follow specific initiatives and projects.

The CPLP is mainly financed by its eight member states.

The CPLP flag has now eight wings, not seven, to reflect East Timor's membership.

Executive Secretaries

Name	Took Office	Left Office	Country
Marcolino Moco	17 July 1996	July 2000	Angola
Dulce Maria Pereira	July 2000	1 August 2002	Brazil
João Augusto de Médicis	1 August 2002	April 2004	Brazil
Zeferino Martins (Interim)	April 2004	July 2004	Mozambique
Luís de Matos Monteiro da Fonseca	July 2004	Present	Cape Verde

Main initiatives

CPLP's HIV-Aids Programme – designed to help the 5 African member states
Centre for the Development of Entrepreneurial Skills – being established in Luanda, Angola
Centre for the Development of Public Administration – being established in Maputo, Mozambique
Centre for East-Timorese Official Languages
Conference on Malaria – to be held in São Tomé and Príncipe
Portuguese Language Census
Digital School and University
Electoral Mission to Guinea-Bissau (East Timor’s President, the Nobel Prize laureate, José Ramos-Horta is CPLP's Representative to the Electoral Process)
Emergency Project for the Support of Institution Rebuilding in Guinea-Bissau
Rebuilding East Timor’s Justice and Public Administration
Combating Poverty and Starvation
"Felino" manoeuvres - annual combined manoeuvres of the Armed Forces of CPLP's countries
The CPLP Movie festival

References

↑ CPLP Associate Observers in CPLP Official website
↑ http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/6459784.html

External links

(Portuguese) Official site of the CPLP
Equatorial Guinea makes Portuguese an official language, and applies for membership of CPLP, Yahoo News 2007-07-13
(Portuguese) Seminário da CPLP – Culture and Development of the CPLP
(Portuguese) Africanidade The African countries of the CPLP
ELO Economic relations between the EU and the CPLP
UCCLA Unity of the Capital Cities of Portuguese language

Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP)

Members:	Angola · Brazil · Cape Verde · East Timor · Guinea-Bissau · Mozambique · Portugal · São Tomé and Príncipe

Observers:	Mauritius · Senegal · Equatorial Guinea

In Process:	Andorra · Morocco · Philippines · Galicia · Macau · Malacca · Goa · Croatia · Romania · Ukraine