Consortium of Independent Nations
Consortium of Independent Nations (in other official languages)
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| Headquarters | St. George's Palace, Sanctus, Sanctaria | ||||||||
| Official languages[a] |
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| Type | Voluntary political association | ||||||||
| Member states | |||||||||
| Leaders | |||||||||
• Secretary-General | Vacant | ||||||||
• Chair Nation |  Atlantaena | ||||||||
| Establishment | |||||||||
• Corkora Declaration | 10 August 2023 | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• Total | 9,987,313 km2 (3,856,123 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 2023 estimate | 905,788,884 | ||||||||
The Consortium of Independent Nations, more commonly known as the Consortium, is an international political association of nations, all of whom were formerly territories of the Papal States of Sanctaria. The Consortium was established in 2023 as a vehicle for fostering closer political, cultural, and economic cooperation between member nations based on their shared history. It is the stated aim of the group that institutions responsible for non-governmental activities, sporting events, and frameworks for trade and commerce will be established as part of the Consortium's organisational structure.
The Consortium will be led by a Secretary-General, elected by representatives of the member states every five years. It is also intended for the Consortium to have meetings of the heads of government of its member states every six months, with the chairmanship of these meetings rotating alphabetically. The first Chair Nation of the inaugural Consortium Governmental Conference (CGC) will be Atlantaena. The Chair Nation's term of office ends with the closing of each CGC.
The headquarters of the Consortium will be located at St. George's Palace in Sanctus, the capital of Sanctaria; St. George's Palace previously housed the national parliament for Sanctaria. The Corkora Declaration, which announced the creation of the Consortium, also indicated that further offices of the organisation would be located in other member states to better coordinate local activities.
Unlike the model of the Papal States, where Sanctaria was deemed the "mother country" and all other nations "territories or part of" it, the Corkora Declaration established the Consortium as a "voluntary" association with member states "of equal standing to one another".
Background
The Papal States of Sanctaria was formed on 11 May 1528 when the Papal Kingdom of Sanctaria acquired the island archipelago duchy of Atlantaena as its first foreign territory, or colony, that was to be subject to its own rule. Over the next three hundred years, through both wars of conquest and coercive negotiations, the Papal States grew to a high of twenty-one states and territories - one of the largest empires on earth at the time, and since. A theocratic, absolute monarchy, the Papal States was ruled by the Patriarch of the Church of Sanctaria, leader of the Church of Sanctaria, seated in Sanctus, Sanctaria, and most laws and decisions for the other states in the Papal States were made here.
The complete centralisation of power in Sanctaria, and in the hands of one man, sowed great division and consternation in the other states and territories of the Papal States, and throughout its existence the Patriarch faced rebellions and threatened revolutions across the empire. In August 1818, Galway and Athlone, two adjacent cities located far from Sanctaria itself, unilaterally seceded from the Papal States and declared themselves independent in a new union. Shortly after their declaration, the Patriarch acknowledged the secession and confirmed they were no longer part of the empire. It was the first time territory had successfully left the Papal States. Over the next century, other states and territories followed suit until in 1974 the Aequitian Treaty formally dissolved what was left of the Papal States of Sanctaria.
In part due to their shared history and language, the former states of the Papal States often worked informally together on the international stage, and many created multilateral or bilateral treaties amongst themselves; for example in 1991, The Uniea and Caorogoth announced a new military training alliance and intelligence sharing bilateral agreement. Beginning with Chancellor Charlene Hendry of Sanctaria in 2018, discreet efforts were made to formalise these loose partnerships in a new international political association; though one where all were equal, and the only legally binding obligations each nation had to one another were those made by consent and treaty.
Discussions on the creation of a voluntary political association of the former states and territories of the Papal States continued in the subsequent years, culminating in the Corkora Declaration on 10 August 2023 in Corkora, Munsteran, where representatives of eighteen of the former twenty-one constituent states announced the establishment of the organisation, with the name "Consortium of Independent Nations" having been suggested by the representatives from Mount Solace.
Organisation
Consortium Governmental Conference
The Consortium Governmental Conference, more commonly referred to as the CGC, is a semi-annual meeting of representatives of the governments of the Consortium member states, and serves as the main decision-making body of the organisation. It is intended for these meetings to be attended by the heads of government, though it is accepted that deputy heads or ministers for foreign affairs, or equivalent, may attend on occasion in their stead. The CGC may last for many days depending on the agenda, if there are multilateral or bilateral talks scheduled between ministers, or if an election for Secretary-General is taking place.
Meetings of the Consortium Governmental Conference are not chaired by the Secretary-General, but by a representative of the member state who has been designated as the Chair Nation. The Chair Nation role alternates between all Consortium members by alphabetical order. The term of office of a Chair Nation begins at the closing of one CGC and ends at the closing of the next.[b] The Chair Nation will not typically have any duties outside of chairing the meetings of the CGC, as all meetings are scheduled to take place in St. George's Palace, the headquarters of the Consortium; should a meeting of the Consortium Govermental Conference take place outside of the headquarters, it would be the responsibility of the Chair Nation to ensure the organisation of such a meeting.
Secretary-General
The political and administrative head of the Consortium is the Secretary-General, who is elected to a five year term by representatives of the governments of the Consortium's member states. It is the role of the Secretary-General to ensure the execution of the agendas decided at Consortium Governmental Conference meetings, and to act as the public and diplomatic face of the organisation and its policies.
The Secretary-General is required to attend all semi-annual meetings of the Consortium Governmental Conference and present a report to the attending heads of government, or their representatives, on the work of the Consortium. According to the Corkora Declaration, it is intended for the Secretary-General to also head a Secretariat attached to the Consortium, which will be the central body attached to the organisation, responsible for administrative, policy, and diplomatic support and representations. Further powers of the Secretary-General are set to be clarified during the Consortium's first CGC.
Membership
Membership is, according to the Corkora Declaration, open to any internationally recognised sovereign state that once was a constituent state, colony, or territory of the Papal States of Sanctaria. Eighteen out of a total of twenty-one nation states that meet this criteria are founding members of the Consortium of Independent Nations; the nations of Rapacellan, Outer Ceylon, and Clan Nich were not part of the group of former territories who attended or signed the Corkora Declaration establishing the organisation on 10 August 2023.
At the signing of the Corkora Declaration, Sanctaria's Secretary for Foreign Affairs Kathryn Stewart indicated that a number of member states were open to the idea that membership could be expanded in the future to nations who had no historical ties to the Papal States, but nonetheless fulfilled other criteria the Consortium would set.
List of Consortium member states
| Country | Date Joined | Population | System of government | Head(s) of government | Current holder(s) | Portrait | Notes |
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| Atlantaena
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10 August 2023 | 5,230,130 | Unitary parliamentary republic | Chief Minister | Janet Robinson | 
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 Buckingham
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10 August 2023 | 38,036,118 | Unitary parliamentary republic | Prime Minister | William Johnson | 
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 Caorogoth
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10 August 2023 | 10,467,366 | Unitary parliamentary republic | Prime Minister | Stanisław Petrović | 
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 Galway and Athlone
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10 August 2023 | 6,480,000 | Unitary parliamentary diarchy | Lord Mayor of Galway | Patricia Keating | 
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| Lord Mayor of Athlone | Brendan Lawlor | 
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 Holy Thebes
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10 August 2023 | 9,282,410 | Unitary semi-constitutional monarchy | Grand Vizier | Ayūb ibn Ibrahim al-Masih | 
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 Kravenland
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10 August 2023 | 49,197,555 | Federal parliamentary republic | Prime Minister | Samuel Potter | 
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 Lanahianta
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10 August 2023 | 2,825,544 | Unitary parliamentary republic | First Minister | Grace Cooke | 
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 Mildeaston
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10 August 2023 | 2,793,592 | Unitary parliamentary republic | Prime Minister | Karl Coleman | 
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 Mount Solace
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10 August 2023 | 5,123,536 | Unitary constitutional monarchy | Lord Chancellor | Neville Smyth | 
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 Munsteran
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10 August 2023 | 105,163,988 | Unitary parliamentary republic | First Minister | Bethany Thompson | 
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 New Hertfordshire
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10 August 2023 | 84,432,670 | Federal parliamentary republic | Prime Minister | Lawrence Warwick | 
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 Nouveau Casterly
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10 August 2023 | 12,186,079 | Federal parliamentary republic | Prime Minister | Jules Michel | 
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 San Georg
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10 August 2023 | 3,688,647 | Unitary parliamentary republic | Prime Minister | Mikheil Nozadze | 
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 Sanctaria
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10 August 2023 | 507,416,607 | Federal constitutional parliamentary republic | Chancellor | Ethan Ringrose | 
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 Sandstonia
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10 August 2023 | 11,708,370 | Unitary parliamentary republic | Prime Minister | Terence Moville | 
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 The Uniea
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10 August 2023 | 3,227,863 | Unitary semi-presidential republic | Prime Minister | Tornike Eristavi | 
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 United Angelorum
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10 August 2023 | 3,871,833 | Unitary parliamentary republic | Premier | Peter Norton | 
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 Vale Wren
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10 August 2023 | 48,345,223 | Unitary constitutional monarchy | Chief Minister | Victoria Collins | 
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Activities
The Consortium's aims were first outlined in the Corkora Declaration creating the organisation in August 2023. In addition to the member states pledging to "deepen the historic bonds" between them, the Declaration also committed the Consortium's members to:
- Furthering world peace and regional stability
- Breaking down barriers between member states
- Celebrating cultural and social ties
- Identifying opportunities for shared growth
A charter governing the organisation and further developing the activities and objectives of the Consortium is to be adopted at the first Consortium Governmental Conference, according to the Corkora Declaration. Some representatives of member states have called for the Consortium to also champion and lobby for societal progress in the areas reproductive rights, sexual liberty, and anti-racism and discrimination both internally and to non-Consortium nations. The intended activities of the Consortium, as well as the makeup of some of its member states, have led some to call the body an "international vehicle for liberal democracy".
Notes
- ↑ Though the Consortium has five official languages, the formal working language of the organisation is English.
- ↑ Any emergency or special CGC meetings that must take place between ordinary scheduled ones do not count for the purposes of the Chair Nation's term in office.
- ↑ Though the Twin Cities of Galway and Athlone is a diarchy, it is expected that only one of their dual heads of government would attend CGC meetings on behalf of the member state. No matter the number of their representatives, Galway and Athlone would only have one vote at the CGC.