DRAFT MESSAGE TO:
All Governors of the
Dependent Territories
CONFIDENTIAL
нки 340
1
RECEIVED IN RESTRY NO. 51
2 1 J!! 1981
21
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
REGISTRY
PA
Action Takan
M
2
317
1.
On July, the House of Lords in Committee passed an
amendment in the following terms:
2.
''A person who is a United Kingdom national for European Community purposes by virtue of the operation of
Article 227(4) of the Treaty of Rome or who has a right of
abode in a British Dependent Territory to which the provisions
of Article 227(4) of the Treaty of Rome apply shall be
entitled, notwithstanding the provisions of Part II of this Act,
on application, to be registered as a British citizen..
Article 227(4) of the Treaty of Rome provides that a Dependent
Territory in Europe for whose external relations a Member State is
responsible shall be a part of the European Community.
3. In practice Gibraltar is the only United Kingdom dependency to whom Article 227(4) applies. (Strictly speaking, the
Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus, the Channel Islands and the Isle
of Man could also have been covered by Article 227(4) but the
Channel Islands and the Isle of Man did not wish to be so covered
and it was decided to leave the Sovereign Base Areas to be dealt
with in the context of any arrangements between the Community and the whole of Cyprus.)
4.
Article 227(4) was part of the original Treaty of Rome.
There was no question of special negotiations to include Gibraltar in the European Community, but Article 227(4) meant that there could
be equally no question of exclusion of Gibraltar from the European Community if they wished to join, as they did. It follows that
the people of Gibraltar will be the only ones who will benefit
from this clause.
/5.