Editing Dutch Language Union (section)

==Organisation==
===Internal organisation===
The NTU has offices in The Hague and Brussels, and it comprises four institutions:
*The Secretariat-General, responsible for preparing and implementing policy, headed by Kris Van de Poel since March 2020
*The Committee of Ministers, containing the ministers of education and culture from the Netherlands and [[Flanders]];
*The Interparliamentary Commission, made up of members of the Dutch and Flemish parliaments;
*The Council for Dutch Language and Literature.<ref name="Willemijns176"/>

===={{anchor|Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal}}''Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal''====
The binational (Belgium and the Netherlands) ''Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal'' ("Institute for the Dutch Language") in Leiden, formerly ''Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie'', works under the auspices of the Dutch Language Union, and is responsible for the ''[[Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal]]'' (Dictionary of the Dutch language).<ref>Willemyns 125.</ref> In addition, the institute publishes a number of dictionaries, including the ''Old Dutch Dictionary'', the ''Early Middle Dutch Dictionary'', and an etymological dictionary; and databases, including databases indexing various newspapers and magazines, and legal documents. The ''Spoken Dutch Corpus'' has contemporary Dutch as spoken in the Netherlands and Flanders, including audio recordings of Standard Dutch.<ref>Willemyns 177–78.</ref>

====Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature====
The [[Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature]] was founded in Belgium in 1886 to stimulate the culture and literature of Flanders. It is the official advisory board to the Flanders government, and publishes the ''Materiaal Willems'' database, based on the dialect surveys done by Pieter Willems, containing material from dialects in Flanders, the Netherlands, and [[French Flanders]].<ref>Willemyns 178-79.</ref>

===External connections===
The organisation is also responsible for the external linguistic policy of the Netherlands and Flanders and is active in [[Indonesia]] and [[South Africa]], two countries with historic links with the Dutch language. Nevertheless, cooperation with South Africa is not limited to the [[Afrikaans]] language but aimed also at fostering multilingualism.{{citation needed|date=June 2012}}

The purposes of the organisation are limited to Dutch language and Dutch-language literature, and are hence not as wide as those of the [[Community of Portuguese Language Countries]], [[Organisation internationale de la Francophonie|La Francophonie]] or the [[Commonwealth of Nations]].

The Treaty on the Dutch Language Union foresees the possibility that the Kingdom of the Netherlands extends application to NTU members’ parts outside Europe. The organs of the NTU are its Committee of Ministers (composed of the ministers of education and culture of the Dutch and Flemish Governments), its Secretariat-General, an Interparliamentary Committee (composed of members of the [[States General of the Netherlands]] and the [[Flemish Parliament]]) and a Dutch Language and Literature Council (composed of twelve independent experts). There are specific arrangements for the participation of Suriname in the organisation's inner workings.

===Member states===
The basis of the Taalunie is a treaty between the [[Kingdom of the Netherlands]] and the [[Belgium|Kingdom of Belgium]], the two sovereign states that constitute the Union. For the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the treaty is only applicable to its [[Netherlands|European territory]].
The treaty allows for two types of extensions:
* membership of other sovereign states through an "association membership"<ref name=verdrag>{{cite web|url=http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBV0002947/geldigheidsdatum_16-04-2011|title=Verdrag tussen het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden en het Koninkrijk Belgie inzake de Nederlandse Taalunie, Brussel|date=9 September 1980|language=nl|work=Netherlands government portal}}</ref>
* extension to other territories of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (presently: [[Aruba]], [[Curaçao]], [[Sint Maarten]], and the [[Caribbean Netherlands]]).<ref name=verdrag/>

In 2004, Suriname signed an "associative treaty" with the Taalunie.<ref name="Suriname"/> From 27 November 2013 the treaty also applies to the [[Caribbean Netherlands]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/trb-2013-253.html|language=nl|title=Tractatenblad 2013, 253|date=19 December 2013 |publisher=Kingdom of the Netherlands|access-date=21 December 2014}}</ref>
The three autonomous Caribbean countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, [[Aruba]], [[Curaçao]], and [[Sint Maarten]], are designated as candidate member states.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/wie_zijn_wij/|language=nl|title=Wie we zijn: Drie landen, één taal|publisher=Nederlandse Taalunie|access-date=30 October 2013}}</ref> Additionally, [[Indonesia]] and [[South Africa]] are considered "special partners" of the Dutch Language Union.