if this happened.
CONFIDENTIAL
EEC
12. Dr Owen said he was glad the decision to accept the
Commission's Opinion on Portugal had been taken at the Council
of Ministers in June. With the Germans in the Presidency, there
should be no problem over the opening of negotiations.
It
was important to have the Spanish Opinion before the end of the
year and there would be advantage in Spain and Portugal joining
at the same time. Dr Owen said he had made no secret of the
fact that Britain would have liked all three applicants to join
together. However, the applications were out of phase and the
Greeks would see it as a rebuff if theirs was now delayed. The
applications must be treated on their intrinsic merits. D: Owen
urged the Portuguese to get on with the preparations for the
negotiations; he felt that no commitments on sensitive areas in
the Greek application should be made until negotiations on the
Portuguese and Spanish applications were under way. He only
talked of a community of 12, not 10, and had no intention of doing
anything else. He hoped this would get people to see the
expansion from 9 to 12 as one jump.
Although there were a few:
reluctant hearts, the Community was firmly committed to expansion to
there was no going back. Over transitional periods he was
12.
flexible.
13.
Dr Owen went on to say that Britain would be happy to help
CONFIDENTIAL
/Portugal