Decision ratified this Monday in Paris at the general conference of the organisation’s executive board. António Costa says that this is “a very important step towards the global recognition of the Portuguese language”. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) ratified this Monday morning, in Paris, the 5th of May as World Day of the Portuguese Language.
The officialisation was signed at the organisation’s headquarters, in the French capital, by a Portuguese delegation composed of Prime Minister António Costa, Minister of Culture Graça Fonseca, Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities Berta Nunes, and the Portuguese Ambassador to UNESCO António Sampaio da Nóvoa.
UNESCO’s ratification of 5 May as the official day of the Portuguese language “is a very important step towards the global recognition of this language, which is officially spoken in nine countries, four continents, and is the fifth most used in the internet space”, António Costa told journalists in Paris, quoted by Lusa. To RTP, the prime minister also reminded that Portuguese is “the official language of 260 million people, and the most spoken in the southern hemisphere”. And he also stressed that the Portuguese language will have “a strong growth”, with the forecast that, at the “end of the century, there will be 500 million” speaking it, making it an “increasingly global language”. that reason, a “fundamental priority in our foreign policy”, added António Costa.
Before the final promulgation of World Portuguese Language Day by the 40th UNESCO General Conference, the Portuguese government official visited the institution’s headquarters, meeting with its director, Audrey Azoulay, and with the ambassadors of the CPLP countries. To the journalists, António Costa also noted that this recognition constitutes “an important step” to make Portuguese one of the working languages of the United Nations. Source – Publico.