GVM 341/91
Mr Le
Lenty
Letter to Paris
644/8
CALL BY M. TERRAL
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1.
M. Jean-François Terral of the French MFA called on you on 2 August. Mr Morris and I were also present. He was accompanied by the Deputy French Consul-General in London, M. Barbry. M. Terral explained that he had responsibility within the MFA for visa policy work, asylum, and all matters relating to Schengen. He stressed that he was in London privately, but wanted to take the opportunity to meet us informally and to discuss matters of mutual interest. Since taking up his current job a year ago, he had been pre-occupied by Schengen, and had not focussed at all on the work at 12. M. Terral made it clear that he saw the UK as a serious operator in the visa field, and very much as an ally even though we were outside the Schengen system, whose members had very differing standards.
2.
On Schengen implementation he said that there were still serious gaps in the proposed arrangements, with too little time to correct them. 1 December was too soon: a further six months were required. But French Ministers had been isolated in Madrid, and would be under political pressure at the October Ministerial to implement Schengen this year, especially now that France had the Presidency. There were three important criteria to satisfy: control of drugs movements; external frontier arrangements; and the SIS. Only the last could be judged objectively; the other two were unquantifiable, and could be covered by vague political statements. So France was likely to have to agree to 1 December even though not all compensatory measures would have been completed.
He saw the following as areas where further progress was urgently required;
3.
a) SIS. Although the French electronic referral system (Réseau Mondial de Visa - RMV) was operating very efficiently, with direct on-line access to Paris from Posts abroad, Schengen partners, with the exception of the Germans, were a long way away behind;
b) Security. Even more worrying was the risk of partners granting Schengen visas to people whom the French wished to have referred for consideration - Russians, certain Middle East nationals etc. The Convention required each Schengen member to check with the others before granting visas to such people. But the necessary electronic links between capitals to make this possible existed only on paper at present, and were unlikely to be in place this year;
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