Community of Portuguese Language Countries
Cultural · CPLP
Timor-Leste is closer to Darwin than to any fellow member: the nearest, Maputo, lies roughly 9,900 kilometres to the west. The statutes make one thing the whole of the entry test: any state whose official language is Portuguese may adhere to them, and the heads of state and government admit it by unanimity.
9 countries
- Angola
- BrazilBrasil
- Cape VerdeJoined 1996.
- Equatorial GuineaGuinea Ecuatorial
- Guinea-BissauGuiné-Bissau
- MozambiqueMoçambique
- Portugal10.3 million people on 92,225 km2, a language spoken by 250 million, a border unchanged since the 13th century, and close to three foreign visitors a year for every resident.
- São Tomé and PríncipeSão Tomé e Príncipe
- Timor-Leste
Common questions
Questions about CPLP
Which countries are in the CPLP?
Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste. Seven of them signed the constitutive declaration in Lisbon on 17 July 1996. Timor-Leste was admitted in 2002, the year independence was restored on 20 May. Equatorial Guinea was admitted at the conference held in Dili on 23 July 2014, and its record lists Portuguese as one of three official languages.
What does a country need in order to join the CPLP?
Portuguese as an official language, adherence to the statutes without reservation, and a unanimous decision of the Conference of Heads of State and Government. The request for accession is made in Portuguese and deposited with the Executive Secretariat in Lisbon. There is no geographic condition and no economic one, which is why the membership is spread across four continents.
Is the CPLP a trade bloc?
No. It has no customs union, no common market and no tariff schedule, and the members conduct their trade policy through the regional organisations they belong to separately: the European Union, Mercosur, the Southern African Development Community, ECOWAS, CEMAC and ASEAN each account for part of the roster.
Does CPLP membership allow free movement between the member states?
Not in the sense the phrase usually carries. The Agreement on Mobility signed at Luanda on 17 July 2021 obliges every party to admit holders of diplomatic, official, special and service passports without a visa. Beyond that each member chooses which categories of people it will accept, by profession or field of activity, and which other members it wants to be bound to, so what applies between any two of them depends on what both have taken on.
Do all the members use the same Portuguese spelling?
Not yet. The Orthographic Agreement signed in Lisbon on 16 December 1990 has not been ratified by Angola or Mozambique. Angolan objections have turned on how the text treats Portuguese alongside the country's other languages and on the missing common orthographic vocabulary; Mozambique's council of ministers approved the text in 2012 without a ratification following. Timor-Leste ratified in 2009.
Sources
- Estatutos da Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa · CPLP. The seat in Lisbon, the ordinary conference every two years, and the article admitting any state that uses Portuguese as an official language, by unanimity.
- Decreto nº 5.002, de 3 de fevereiro de 2004 · Presidência da República, Brazil. Promulgation of the CPLP statutes, with the text as revised.
- Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries · Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros, Portugal. The founding in Lisbon in 1996, the seven founding states, and the states holding associate observer status.
- Resolução da Assembleia da República nº 313/2021: Acordo sobre a Mobilidade entre os Estados-Membros da CPLP · Diário da República, Portugal. The agreement signed at Luanda on 17 July 2021, its authenticated text, the passport categories that form the minimum, and the preamble describing a flexible and variable system.
- Decreto nº 6.583, de 29 de setembro de 2008 · Presidência da República, Brazil. Promulgation of the Orthographic Agreement of the Portuguese Language, signed in Lisbon on 16 December 1990.
- CPLP: Angola e Moçambique ainda não ratificaram o Acordo Ortográfico · Observador. The two members that have not ratified, the Angolan objections, and the Mozambican council of ministers' approval in 2012.
- Identidade · Instituto Internacional da Língua Portuguesa. The proposal at São Luís do Maranhão in 1989, the constitution of the institute in 2002 and the seat in Praia.
- Equatorial Guinea: Group Should Investigate Abuses · Human Rights Watch. The objection to the admission of July 2014 and the terms recorded in the Dili declaration.
- Equatorial Guinea: Portuguese as its Third Official Language · Global Voices. The 2010 decree amending article 4 of the constitution of 1998 to add Portuguese.
- Equatorial Guinea: abolition of the death penalty · Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères, France. The penal code signed in September 2022 removing capital punishment.
- Equatorial Guinea Becomes 25th African Country to Abolish Death Penalty · Death Penalty Information Center. The date of the signature and the scope of the new code.