Latin Union

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Latin Union
1954–2012 (suspension)
Latin Union logo.png
Logo
Union Latine.svg
Headquarters Paris, France
48°46′N2°11′E / 48.767°N 2.183°E / 48.767; 2.183
Official languages
Members [1]
Leaders
 
President of the Congress
Oleg Serebrian
 Secretary-General
José Luis Dicenta Ballester
Historical era Post-Cold War
 Established
15 May 1954
 Suspended
31 July 2012 (suspension)

The Latin Union [lower-alpha 1] is an international organization of nations that use Romance languages, [2] whose activities have been suspended since 2012. Headquartered in Paris, France, it aims to protect, project, and promote the common cultural heritage of Latin peoples and unifying identities of the Romance, and Romance-influenced, world. It was created in 1954 in Madrid, Spain. It started to operate in 1983 and its membership rose from 12 to 36 states, including countries in North America, South America, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. [3]

Contents

Due to financial difficulties, the Latin Union announced on 26 January 2012 the suspension of its activities, the dissolution of its Secretariat General (effective 31 July 2012), and the 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 met the following criteria:

Official languages

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

Member states

Spanish

French

Portuguese

Italian

Romanian

Catalan

Observers

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 subordinated 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 obligatory contributions from the Member States. For some activities, the Union may have collaborated with other public or private institutions.

See also

Notes

  1. Official name in six languages:

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References

  1. "États membres". Latin Union. Retrieved 2013-12-06.
  2. Latin Union Official Site Archived 2009-05-12 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Unión Latina; Estados miembros". Archived from the original on 2008-12-28. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
  4. "Disolución de la Secretaría General de la Unión Latina", Unión Latina, accessed 2012-06-10.