Non-paper
A non-paper is an informal working document circulated to test ideas, present options or facilitate negotiations without necessarily adopting them as an official government or institutional position.
Its status is context-specific: it may come from a delegation, facilitator or other actor, and can later influence an official draft.
It allows negotiators to explore compromise without prematurely locking parties into a formal text, while still requiring careful handling of provenance and circulation.
An EU facilitator’s non-paper on negotiations can summarize possible areas of convergence; delegates may discuss it without treating it as an agreed statement.
Not intrinsically confidential and not automatically legally meaningless; status depends on circumstances.
Closely related entries kept separate because each carries a distinct institutional meaning.
- Zero Draft
A zero draft is an initial working version of a proposed negotiating text circulated to invite comments, changes and competing formulations.
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