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Ms FugNysr
M's attich has
Speak Nike we have d'anted
Mr Pantr Mr Shop
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Commission
HKB 400/1
14it Our reference
2. Jan 2/1/12
5 December 1990
19/12
Dr E Jones Parry
ECD (E)
FCO
Dear Emyr,
COMMISSION OFFICE IN HONG KONG
1.
Date
Miss Marsden Ry19/1
Mr
~
This has already been picked up. Is see attached speaking note. As you know, we have regularly pressed the Commission over the 7/12
past eighteen months to open an office (not a full scale delegation) in Hong Kong; Andriessen's commitment to do so during his visit there was a great encouragement and, recently, the Governor and John Kerr have both urged him to fulfil this. On the other hand, we have had regular reports from within the Commission that the pressures from other quarters (notably Matutes and Marin), that delegations in other countries should take a higher priority, meant that DG I overall resources were being very squeezed and Hong Kong's place on the priority list was not guaranteed.
2.
We raised the subject again with
with Giola (Deputy Director- General, DG I) before his visit to London last week and I have subsequently seen from your telno 362 that he spoke of Prague, Sofia and Riyadh having been identified as having a higher priority. I therefore spoke again today to Michael Leigh (who handles Hong Kong in the Andriessen Cabinet) and asked him whether this represented a real change in the Commission position. His news was both bad and good.
3. The bad news was that, despite the efforts of Andriessen's Cabinet (and Andriessen himself remained personally committed to establishing an office in Hong Kong next year), the Commission as a whole had not been persuaded to build into the
the 1991 budget provision for an office in Hong Kong; there would on the other hand be provision for delegations in Prague, Sofia, Riyadh and he thought Buenos Aires. Leigh readily acknowledged that it was nonsense to establish Sofia as a higher priority than Hong Kong, but that was the decision taken by the Commission.
4.
The
The better news was that DG I had come up with a scheme which would enable the office to be set up in practice next
next year, although formal provision for it would not happen until 1992. game-plan was to wait until the overall budget had been agreed, and the overall number of posts decided for the Commission's overseas presence. Once that happened, DG I intended to claim two posts from the reserve for the Hong Kong office which would enable it to open, albeit with limited staff. More staff would then be added in 1992. The key was getting the posts; provision for accommodation, supplies etc could always be made on a temporary/informal basis as had been done with the initial offices in Poland, Romania and elsewhere.
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