Latin Union Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
The Latin Union – Spanish: Unión Latina; French: Union Latine; Italian: Unione Latina; Portuguese: União Latina; Romanian: Uniunea Latină – is an intergovernmental organization that gathers together the nations of the world that use a Romance language. Its aim is to promote and disseminate the common heritage and different identities of the Latin world. It was created in 1954 with the signing of a constituent agreement in Madrid, and it has existed as a functional institution since 1983.Since that date, its member states have risen from 12 to 35, and its membership now covers all parts of the world. Accession is open to any state that satisfies at least one of 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 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
- Interchanges 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).
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The Latin Union currently has members from four continents (five if America is counted as two):
Member States
The official languages of the Latin Union are Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. The first four are used as working languages. All the texts of general diffusion are translated into these four languages, with some also going into Romanian.
One might question why countries such as East Timor (Portuguese is an official language along with Tetum) and Equatorial Guinea (Spanish and French are both official languages), are not part of the union despite of their obvious qualification. It can be assumed that like any organisation (such as the European Union, the UN, etc.) a country would need to apply for membership to be part of it and the two latter countries have not applied for one.
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