The Latin Union was an international organization of nations that used Romance languages that existed as a functional institution from 1983 to 2012. Its aim was to protect, project, and promote 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 its membership rose from 12 to 36 states, including countries in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. The official names of the Latin Union were: Union Latine in French, Unione Latina in Italian, União Latina in Portuguese, Uniunea Latină in Romanian, Unión Latina in Spanish, and Unió Llatina in Catalan. Due to financial difficulties, the Latin Union announced on 26 January 2012 the suspension of its activities, the dissolution of its Secretariat General and termination of employment for all the organization's personnel.
Membership
According to the Latin Union's website, membership was open to any nation that met the following criteria:
*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
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.
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 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.
The Commission of Adhesions was composed of 10 Member States and was responsible for promoting the adherence of all the Member States of the Union.
The Commission of Candidacies was composed of 9 Member States and was responsible for examining the validity of the candidacies, taking account of the geographical and linguistic-cultural division.
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:
The Commission of Finance and Programmes
The Commission of Statues
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:
Director of Terminology and Industry of the Language
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.
