Lobbying and the legislative process

One entry, der Referentenentwurf, hides a word an English reader tends to put in the wrong place. Der Referent looks like « referent » or « referee », and it does share their Latin root, referre, to carry back or report. But it is neither the thing a word refers to nor the person who writes you a reference. In a German ministry der Referent is the official in charge of a unit, das Referat, the desk where a text is actually drafted; at a conference the same word simply means the speaker. So der Referentenentwurf is the draft as it leaves the officials’ desks, before the other ministries have signed it off and before the cabinet has adopted it. That is why it matters on this page: it is the version still open to argument, and the one the associations are asked to comment on.