The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) “took far too long to realise that a common language, without logistics, access to credit, institutional trust, legal certainty, productive complementarity and effective political will, is merely music without engineering,” argues economist Francisco Xavier Pedro, as the organisation marks its 30th anniversary this month.
“The CPLP has often spoken of a shared destiny, but it has built very little in terms of a shared economy. For Angola, the imperative over the coming decades is to remove Lusophony from the museum of memory and place it firmly in the demanding laboratory of economic diversification, industrialisation, science, technology and global competitiveness,” Xavier Pedro concludes, ahead of the anniversary of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).
On 17 July, the CPLP will celebrate 30 years since its founding in Lisbon. The organisation was established in 1996 with seven member states—Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Timor-Leste joined six years later, followed by Equatorial Guinea in 2014.
Three decades on, however, its founding ambitions remain largely unfulfilled.
“The CPLP remains, to a large extent, an architecture of nostalgia—a diplomatic ritual centred on language and historical memory rather than a genuine economic community,” Xavier Pedro says.
According to the economist, the organisation’s greatest achievement “has been preserving a common platform for dialogue, historical affinity and mutual recognition among peoples scattered across four continents.”
Its fundamental weakness, however, “has been its failure to transform this symbolic heritage into productive strength, robust intra-community trade, Lusophone value chains, transformative investment and shared economic sovereignty.”
The overall assessment is therefore mixed, reflecting three decades of efforts to build a community of states connected by historical ties rooted in a shared colonial past—with the exception of Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony that applied to join the CPLP in 2010 as a means of overcoming its regional isolation by strengthening ties with countries such as Brazil and Angola, according to a study published by ISCTE’s Centre for International Studies.
Originally created to promote the Portuguese language, strengthen political and diplomatic coordination, and deepen cooperation among member states, the CPLP has gradually expanded its agenda to include economic issues, particularly following the adoption of the Mobility Agreement in 2021.
However, member states themselves have undermined one of the agreement’s central objectives—freedom of movement—thereby frustrating one of the bloc’s most significant aspirations.
Portugal’s new immigration law, approved in July 2025, changed the rules governing the entry of CPLP citizens into the country. Under the revised legislation, Portuguese-speaking nationals must now obtain a work or residence visa before travelling to Portugal in order to qualify for a residence permit.
The move represents a step backwards, further limiting mobility within the CPLP. Portugal had already faced restrictions due to its obligations under the Schengen Area rules, and the legislative change reflects a broader political shift, although full freedom of movement had never been fully implemented across the bloc.
“Visa facilitation ultimately reflects a neo-colonial mindset: Portugal needs labour and therefore makes it easier for people to come and work, but a Cape Verdean who simply wants to go on holiday or visit family continues to face difficulties,” sociologist Redy Lima told Lusa, highlighting what he described as “the unequal relationship between member states.”
Source: Expansão
