Latin Union

Headquarters Paris, France
48°46′N 2°11′E / 48.767°N 2.183°E / 48.767; 2.183
Official languages
Members[1]
  • Catalan: Andorra
  • French: Côte d'Ivoire · France · Haiti · Monaco · Senegal
  • Italian: Italy · San Marino
  • Portuguese: Angola · Brazil · Cape Verde · East Timor · Guinea-Bissau · Mozambique · Portugal · São Tomé and Príncipe
  • Romanian: Moldova · Romania
  • Spanish: Bolivia · Chile · Colombia · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · El Salvador · Guatemala · Honduras · Nicaragua · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · Philippines · Spain · Uruguay · Venezuela
  • Observers: Argentina · Holy See · Mexico · Sovereign Military Order of Malta
Leaders
 
President of the Congress
Oleg Serebrian
 Secretary-General
José Luis Dicenta Ballester
Establishment 15 May 1954 in Madrid, Spain

The Latin Union is a defunct international organization of nations that used Romance languages, with the aim of protecting, projecting, and promoting the common cultural heritage of Latin peoples and unifying identities of the Latin, and Latin-influenced, world. It was created in 1954 in Madrid, Spain, and existed as a functional institution from 1983 to 2012. Its membership rose from 12 to 36 states, including countries in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.[2]

The official names of the Latin Union were: Unió Llatina in Catalan, Union Latine in French, Unione Latina in Italian, União Latina in Portuguese, Uniunea Latină in Romanian, and Unión Latina in Spanish.[3]

Due to financial difficulties, the Latin Union announced on 26 January 2012 the suspension of its activities, the dissolution of its Secretariat General (effective July 31, 2012) and termination of employment for all the organization's personnel.[4]

Membership

According to the Latin Union's website, membership was open to any nation that meets the following criteria:

Official languages

The official languages of the Latin Union were Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish are used as working languages. All the texts of general diffusion were translated into these four languages, with some also going into Romanian and Catalan.

Organization

The Union was composed of three main bodies, namely, the Congress, the Executive Council, and the General Secretariat.

Congress

The Congress, which consisted of the representatives of all the Member States, met in ordinary assembly every two years. Its main functions were

A President and two Vice-Presidents were also elected by the Congress. Oleg Serebrian from the Republic of Moldova was the last President.

There were also two auxiliary bodies of the Congress, namely, the Commission of Adhesions and the Commission of Candidacies.

Executive Council

The Executive Council was the executive branch of the Union. It consisted of 12 Member States, which were elected by the Congress every four years, and led by a President and two Vice-Presidents, which were also elected by the Congress.

There were also two auxiliary commissions sub-ordinated to the Executive Council:

General Secretariat

The Latin Union was directed by a Secretary-General appointed every four years by the Congress. The Secretary was in charge of the execution of the programmes and implemented the decisions made by the Congress and the Executive Council in the matter of budget and general direction. Jose Luis Dicenta Ballester was at one time Secretary-General of the Union.

Subordinated to the Secretary-General, there were 4 directors:

Finance

The finance of the Union was mainly supported by the obligatory contributions from the Member States. For some activities, the Union may have collaborated with other public or private institutions.

Map of Latin Union

Member states of the Latin Union.

See also

References

  1. "États membres". Latin Union. Retrieved 2013-12-06.
  2. "Unión Latina; Estados miembros". Retrieved 2009-01-05.
  3. Latin Union Official Site
  4. "Disolución de la Secretaría General de la Unión Latina", Unión Latina, accessed 2012-06-10.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.