enta
CONFIDENTIAL
(there is a blu for next with
I think)
2/3 NBT
26
Mrs D Barnes Jones
HKD
WH 312
HONG KONG:
PROPOSED EUROPEAN COMMISSION OFFICE
1. I refer to your minute to Miss Brooks, Legal Counsellor, about the above.
2. You wondered what privileges and immunities (p & i) the European Commission enjoys in the UK. These are accorded by the Protocol on the Privileges & Immunities of the European Communities (copy attached).
3.
In brief summary, under the Protocol the Commission's premises and archives are inviolable, and it enjoys exemption from all direct taxes (except charges for public utility services) and from Customs duties, etc on articles imported or exported for official use. Their communications (including bags) enjoy the same treatment as those of diplomatic missions.
4. Staff of the Commission's offices are accorded only limited p & i, akin to those enjoyed by administrative and technical staff of a diplomatic or consular mission (ie. "official act" immunity only) and duty free importation of their personal effects at the time of first taking up their post, rather than to those enjoyed by diplomatic agents.
5. If the Protocol was extended to Hong Kong (? applicability of the Treaty of Rome), presumably it is under its provisions that p & i should be granted there. In such case, the question whether the EC is an international organisation or not would be irrelevant.
6. My understanding also is that only consular missions can be established in dependent territories; diplomatic missions are for Sovereign States. Only consular-type p & i would therefore seem appropriate to missions in Hong Kong at present. I assume the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) is applicable to Hong Kong as a Crown Colony?
leene
еле
V C Wallis
Protocol Department
HKD 406/5
RI
03 MAR 1993
OAB G56
210 6800
CC
INDL
Miss Brooks, Legal Counsellor
Ms Conroy, ECD (E)
Mr Bristow Smith, FED
VW01.250293
CONFIDENTIAL
1
:
PROTOCOL ON THE PRIVILEGES AND. IMMUNITIES OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
W26
THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES,
Considering that under the terms of Article 28 of the Treaty setting up a single Council and a single Commission of the European Communities these Communities and the European Investment Bank shall enjoy in the territories of the Member States the privileges and immunities necessary for the achieve- ment of their task,
HAVE AGREED upon the following provisions which shall be annexed to this Treaty:
{
CHAPTER I-PROPERTY, FUNDS, ASSETS AND OPERATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
ARTICLE 1
The premises and buildings of the Communities shall be inviolable. They shall be exempt from search, requisition, confiscation or expropriation. The property and assets of the Communities shall not be the subject of any adminis- trative or legal measure of constraint or attachment without the authorisation of the Court of Justice.
>
ARTICLE 2
The archives of the Communities shall be inviolable.
ARTICLE 3
The Communities, their asses, revenues aud other property shall be exempt from all direct taxes.
The Governments of the Member States shall, wherever possible, take the appropriate measures to remit or refund the amount of indirect taxes or sales taxes included in the price of movable or immovable property where the Communities make, for their official use, major purchases the price of which includes taxes of this kind. These provisions shall not be applied, however, so as to have the effect of distorting conditions of competition within the Communities.
No exemption shall be granted in respect of taxes and dues which amount merely to charges for public utility services.
ARTICLE 4
The Communities shall be exempt from all customs duties, prohibitions and restrictions on imports and exports in respect of articles intended for their official use; articles so imported shall not be disposed of, whether in return for payment or by way of gift, in the territory of the country into which they have been imported, except under conditions approved by the Government of that country.
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