Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa Community of Portuguese Language Countries
Flag of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries Flag
Headquarters		Palace of the Counts of Penafiel, Lisbon, Portugal 38°46′N 9°11′W / 38.767°N 9.183°W / 38.767; -9.183
Official language		Portuguese
Membership		Eight countries (plus three associate members)
Leaders
-	Executive Secretary	Domingos Simões Pereira
-	Summit Presidency	Angola
Establishment		1996
Website http://www.cplp.org

Community of Portuguese Language Countries or Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries^[1] (Portuguese: Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa, pronounced: [kumuniˈðað(ɨ) ðuʃ pɐˈizɨʒ ðɨ ˈlĩɡwɐ puɾtuˈɣezɐ] (EP), [komuniˈdadʒi dus paˈiziz dʒi ˈlĩɡwɐ poʁtuˈɡezɐ] (BP); abbreviated to CPLP) is the intergovernmental organization for friendship among lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) nations where Portuguese is an official language. The Portuguese-speaking countries are home to more than 240 million people located across the globe. The CPLP nations have a combined area of about 10,772,000 square kilometres (4,159,000 sq mi).

Formation and member states[link]

The CPLP was formed in 1996 with seven countries: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. East Timor joined the community in 2002 after gaining independence.

The CPLP is a bloc in the process of construction and the societies of the eight member nations have little knowledge of each other. One of the features of the CPLP is that its members are linked by a common language and shared cultural features, which form a bridge among countries separated by great distances and on different continents.

In 2005, during a meeting in Luanda, the ministers of culture of the eight countries declared the 5 May as the Lusophone Culture Day (Dia da Cultura Lusófona in Portuguese).

In July 2006, during the Bissau summit, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritius were admitted as Associate Observers^[2] along with 17 International associations and organizations considered as Consultative Observers.

When the CPLP was formed, Equatorial Guinea asked for observer status. Equatorial Guinea (Portuguese: Guiné Equatorial) was a Portuguese colony from the 15th to 18th centuries and has some territories where Portuguese-based creole languages are spoken and cultural connections with São Tomé and Príncipe and Portugal are felt. Also, the country has recently cooperated with Portuguese-speaking African countries and Brazil at an educational level. At the CPLP summit of July 2004, in São Tomé and Príncipe, the member states agreed to change the statutes of the community to accept states as associate observers. Equatorial Guinea is in discussion for full membership.^[3] In June 2010, Equatorial Guinea asked to be admitted as full member. At its 8th summit in Luanda in July 2010, the CPLP decided to open formal negotiations with Equatorial Guinea about full membership in the CPLP.^[4]

Mauritius, which was unknown to Europeans until the Portuguese sailed there and has strong connections with Mozambique, also obtained associate observer status in 2006.

In 2008, Senegal, with historical connections to Portuguese colonisation in Casamance, was admitted as Associate Observer.

Summits[link]

Summit	Country	City	Year
I CPLP Summit	Portugal	Lisbon	1996
II CPLP Summit	Cape Verde	Praia	1998
III CPLP Summit	Mozambique	Maputo	2000
IV CPLP Summit	Brazil	Brasilia	2002
V CPLP Summit	São Tomé and Príncipe	São Tomé	2004
VI CPLP Summit	Guinea-Bissau	Bissau	2006
VII CPLP Summit	Portugal	Lisbon	2008
VIII CPLP Summit	Angola	Luanda	2010
IX CPLP Summit	Brazil	Rio de Janeiro	2011
X CPLP Summit	TBA	TBA	2012

Importance[link]

The Portuguese-speaking countries are home to more than 240 million people located across the globe but having cultural similarities and a shared history. The CPLP nations have a combined area of about 10,742,000 square kilometres (4,148,000 sq mi), which is larger than Canada.

Since its formation, the CPLP has helped to solve problems in São Tomé and Príncipe and in Guinea-Bissau, because of coups d'état in those countries. These two problems were solved, and in fact, have helped these two countries to take economic reforms (in the case of São Tomé) and democratic ones (in the case of Guinea-Bissau).

The leaders of the CPLP believe that peace in Angola and Mozambique as well as East Timor's independence favors the further development of the CPLP and a strengthening of multilateral cooperation.

Since many children in rural areas of Lusophone Africa and East Timor are out-of-school youth, the education officials in these regions seek help from Portugal and Brazil to increase the education to spread Portuguese fluency (like establishing Instituto Camões language center branches in main cities and rural towns), as Portuguese is becoming one of the main languages in Southern Africa, where it is also taught in Namibia and South Africa.

In many developing Portuguese-speaking nations, Portuguese is the language of government and commerce which means that Portuguese speaking people from African nations can work and communicate with others in different parts of the world, especially in Portugal and Brazil, where the economies are stronger. Many leaders of Portuguese-speaking nations in Africa are fearful that language standards do not meet the fluency required and are therefore making it compulsory in schools so that a higher degree of fluency is achieved and young Africans will be able to speak a world language that will help them later in life.

Angola and Mozambique have not yet signed the most recent accord on the orthography of the Portuguese language, and have asked other PALOP countries to support them in discussions on various points of that accord with Portugal.^[5]

System[link]

The Organization’s Executive Secretariat is responsible for designing and implementing the CPLP's projects and initiatives. It is located in Lisbon, Portugal. The Executive Secretary has a two-year mandate, and can be elected only once.

The CPLP's guidelines and priorities are established by biannual Conference of Heads of State and the Organization’s plan of action is approved by the Council of Foreign Ministers, which meets every year.

There are also monthly meetings of the Permanent Steering Committee that follow specific initiatives and projects.

The CPLP is mainly financed by its eight member states.

The CPLP flag has now eight wings, not seven, to reflect East Timor's membership.

Main initiatives[link]

• CPLP's HIV-Aids Programme – designed to help the 5 African member states
• Centre for the Development of Entrepreneurial Skills – being established in Luanda, Angola
• Centre for the Development of Public Administration – being established in Maputo, Mozambique
• Centre for East-Timorese Official Languages
• Conference on Malaria – to be held in São Tomé and Príncipe
• Portuguese Language Census
• Digital School and University
• Electoral Mission to Guinea-Bissau (East Timor’s President, the Nobel Prize laureate, José Ramos-Horta is CPLP's Representative to the Electoral Process)
• Emergency Project for the Support of Institution Rebuilding in Guinea-Bissau
• Rebuilding East Timor’s Justice and Public Administration
• Combating Poverty and Starvation
• Felino Exercise - annual combined exercise of the Armed Forces of CPLP's countries
• The CPLP Movie festival

Consultative Observers[link]

Besides Associate Observer states, the CPLP also engages civil society organizations as Consultative Observers from various CPLP and non-CPLP countries (Spain and China) as well as pan-Lusophone bodies.^[6]

Country	Observadores consultivos
Angola	Fundação Agostinho Neto Fundação Eduardo dos Santos
Brazil	Conselho Nacional de Secretários de Saúde dos Estados Brasileiros Comissão InterPaíses/Países de Língua Oficial Portuguesa (Fundação Rotarianos São Paulo) Fundação Oswaldo Cruz Fundação Roberto Marinho Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro Universidade Estadual de Campinas Universidade Federal da Bahia Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
Cape Verde	Fundação Amílcar Cabral
Galicia	Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language
Macau	Instituto Internacional de Macau
Portugal	Assistência Médica Internacional Associação das Misericórdias de Portugal Associação dos Ex-Deputados da Assembleia da República Portuguesa Centro de Conciliação e Mediação de Conflitos - Concórdia Círculo de Reflexão Lusófona Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa Fundação Bial Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Fundação Champalimaud Fundação D. Manuel II Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento Fundação Luso-Brasileira para o Desenvolvimento do Mundo de Língua Portuguesa Fundação Mário Soares Fundação Oriente Fundação para a Divulgação das Tecnologias de Informação Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da Comunidade Fundação Portugal-África Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical Médicos do Mundo Organização Paramédicos de Catástrofe Internacional Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa União das Mutualidades Portuguesas Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias
São Tomé and Príncipe	Fundação Novo Futuro
CPLP	Associação das Universidades de Língua Portuguesa Associação dos Comités Olímpicos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa Comunidade Médica de Língua Portuguesa Comunidade Sindical dos Países de Língua Portuguesa Confederação da Publicidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa Conselho Empresarial da CPLP Fórum da Juventude da CPLP União dos Advogados de Língua Portuguesa Saúde em Português

Map[link]

Map of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries

Macau Accession[link]

Macau was the last Portuguese overseas territory to be decolonized, and returned to China in 1999, it still retains traces of Portuguese culture and Portuguese is an official language of the territory. The request for obtaining the status of "Observer Member" has not yet been made ​​by the Government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), however in 2006, during the II Ministerial Meeting between China and Portuguese Speaking Countries, the Executive Secretary CPLP Deputy ambassador Tadeu Soares, representing the CPLP sent an invitation to the Chief Executive, Edmund Ho Hau Wa, to the MSAR become Associate Observer of the Organization.

See also[link]

• Lusophone music
• CPLP Games
• Lusophony Games
• TV CPLP
• Flag of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries
• Lusitanic
• Francophonie
• Commonwealth of Nations
• Latin Union
• Portuguese Empire
• Geographic distribution of the Portuguese language
• Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP)
• List of countries where Portuguese is an official language
• List of international organisations which have Portuguese as an official language
• Commonwealth of Independent States

References[link]

External links[link]

• (Portuguese) Official site of the CPLP
• (Portuguese) Seminário da CPLP – Culture and Development of the CPLP
• (Portuguese) Africanidade The African countries of the CPLP
• ELO Economic relations between the EU and the CPLP
• UCCLA Unity of the Capital Cities of Portuguese language