Portuguese PM reaffirms goal of making Portuguese an official UN language

Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro on Tuesday reiterated his government’s goal of strengthening the country's consular network and, along with Brazil, making Portuguese an official language of the United Nations.

Montenegro gave a reception in São Bento for the counsellors of the Portuguese communities, which was also attended by Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel and Secretary of State José Cesário and former Social Democrat Secretary of State Manuela Aguiar.

The government is “strongly committed to a very close relationship with the Portuguese communities,” Montenegro said at the event.

“The Council of Portuguese Communities is a well-established institution, the second oldest of its kind in Europe, and it is a consultative body that no government can do without - and this one certainly won't,” he stressed.

The government intends to “‘make the work of the consular network more dynamic and effective by the end of the parliamentary term,” he added.

“We're trying to strengthen and improve it for the coming years. It is an indispensable factor in supporting Portuguese communities and in connecting the Portuguese public administration with individuals, associations, and companies,” he also said.

The prime minister said the second objective is to make Portuguese an official UN language.

“I took advantage of my recent visit to the United Nations General Assembly [in New York], a fortnight ago, to interact with the president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, and take advantage of the willingness he had already expressed so that we could invest in making Portuguese an official language of the United Nations. It will be a step that, if we manage to realise it, will be remarkable,’ he said.

In this context, Montenegro noted that Brazil, “because of its size, because it has around 220 million citizens who speak Portuguese, obviously has to make an effort here that is compatible with that size.”

“But Portugal is not out of the equation - nor are all the Portuguese language countries. It will be a way for us to maximise the language's value for this whole community,” he added.

The outgoing president of the Council of Portuguese Communities, Flávio Martins, said his organisation brings together business people, workers and students from different countries where Portuguese emigrate.

‘We have confidence in the Portuguese government. We believe it will have the sensitivity and proximity to the Portuguese communities we need. We are as Portuguese as the Portuguese who live in Portugal. We defend Portugal abroad,” Martins added.

(Pedro Morais Fonseca | Lusa.pt)