11-AUG-1993 18:18
POLITICAL ADVISER'S OFF.
852 904 6732
P.02
See (69
(70)
SPEAKING NOTE
H4B345/3
RECEIVED IN REG
12 AUG 1993
DESK OFFICE?
INDE
run Take
the 9 signatories of common visa List
We understand that your governments the Schengen Convention, are establishing (CVL) which will dictate visa requirements for visitors from outside the Schengen area, to be applied when the Schengen Convention enters into force. We also understand that you intend to include Hong Kong on the CVL. The effect of this would be that Hong Kong residents with British Dependent Territories Citizen (BDTC) and/or British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) status would need visas to enter all 9 Schengen countries. This would amount to a major new restriction on visa-free travel, which BDTC and BN (0) passport holders currently enjoy in all but 3 of the Schengen countries (France, Germany and Portugal).
We recognise that the CVL is not aimed exclusively at Hong Kong; that travellers from some other parts of the world will also face new visa requirements; and that some aggregation of national visa requirements is a necessary part of the
Schengen process. But we are nevertheless concerned at the prospect of a CVL visa requirement for Hong Kong. Concern is already evident and growing in the Hong Kong community as a result of recent media reports.
We therefore wish to reinforce the approaches which the British Government is already making to some Schengen Governments on this issue. We urge your Governments to reconsider the inclusion of Hong Kong on the CVL. We believe that Hong Kong BDTCS and BN (O)s constitute a special case which should be treated on its merits, and not as part of the wider aggregation process. We hope you will conclude that it would be better to extend throughout the Schengen area the visa-free treatment they currently receive in the majority of Schengen countries, rather than to align the CVL on the most restrictive current national practice.