The Latin Union is an international organization of nations that use a Romance language. Its aim is to protect, project, and promote the common cultural heritage and unifying identities of the Latin, and Latin-influenced, world. It was created in 1954 in Madrid, Spain, and it has existed as a functional institution since 1983. Since that time its member states have risen from 12 to 37, and its membership now includes countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and a small amount in the Asia-Pacific region.

The official names of the Latin Union are (ordered by total speaking population): Unión Latina in Spanish, União Latina in Portuguese, Union Latine in French, Unione Latina in Italian, Uniunea Latină in Romanian, and Unió Llatina in Catalan.

Criteria

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

• Linguistic criteria

• *Official language derived from Latin

• *Latin-derived language used in education

• *Latin-derived language commonly used in the mass media or in daily life

• Linguistic/cultural criteria

• *Existence of significant literature in a Latin-derived language

• *Press and publication in Latin-derived language

• *Television with a strong proportion of the programming in a Latin-derived language

• *Radio widely broadcast in a Latin-derived language

• Cultural criteria

• *Direct or indirect inheritance of the legacy of Ancient Rome, to which the state remains faithful and which it perpetuates mainly through the education of Latin

• *Cultural education of Latin-derived foreign languages

• *Exchange programmes with other Latin countries

• *Societal organization, particularly in the legal plane, based on respect for fundamental liberties, the general principles of human rights and democracy, tolerance and freedom of religion

Member states

In the Philippines, Spanish isn't spoken by a large percentage, but it remained an 'official language' of government until ratification of a new constitution in 1973.

The Latin Union currently has members from five continents (listed by the Romance language that is spoken there):

Spanish/ ()

Portuguese/ ()

French/ ()

Italian/ ()

Romanian/ ()

Catalan/ ()

Permanent observers

Official languages

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

Organisation

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

Congress

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

• to adopt the budget,

• to define the general directions of the Union,

• to receive the new Member States formally, and

• to elect and appoint different Member States to be the Presidents, Vice-Presidents and members of the sub-organisations of the Union.

A President and two Vice-Presidents are also elected by the Congress. Mr. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar from Peru is the current President.

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

• The Commission of Adhesions is composed of 10 Member States and responsible for promoting the adhesions of all the Member States of the Union.

• The Commission of Candidacies is composed of 9 Member States and responsible for examining the validity of the candidacies, taking account of the geographical and linguistic-cultural division.

Executive Council

The Executive Council is the executive branch of the Union. It is consisted of 12 Member States, which are elected by the Congress every 4 years, and led by a President and two Vice-Presidents, which are also elected by the Congress. Currently, Brazil, Cape Verde, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Moldova, Romania and Uruguay are the members of the council, while Uruguay is the President and Portugal and Romania are the Vice-Presidents.

There are also two auxiliary commissions sub-ordinated to the Executive Council.

• The Commission of Finance and Programmes

• The Commission of Statues

General Secretariat

The Latin Union is directed by a Secretary-General appointed every 4 years by the Congress. The Secretary is in charge of the execution of the programmes and implement the decisions made by the Congress and the Executive Council in the matter of budget and general directions. Mr. Ambasciatore Bernardino Osio is currently the Secretary-General of the Union.

Sub-ordinated to the Secretary-General, there are 4 directors:

• Director of Administration and Finance

• Director of Culture and Communication

• Director of Promotion and Education of the Languages

• Director of Terminology and Industry of the Language

Finance

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

See also

• Association of Spanish Language Academies

• Community of Portuguese Language Countries

• Francophonie

• Hispanic

• Latin America

• Latin Europe

• Latin Monetary Union

• Latin peoples (linguistic)

• Legacy of the Roman Empire

• Organization of Ibero-American States

• Panhispanism

• Romance languages

• Romance-speaking African countries