HKCD 406/5
REGE
24 FE: 1993
CONFIDENTIAL ENTIAL
ра
noted.
19
005143
b/ir 3 March.
MDLOAN 8366
CONFIDENTIAL
FM FCO
TO PRIORITY UKREP BRUSSELS
TELNO 59
OF 221138Z FEBRUARY 93
INFO ROUTINE PEKING, HONG KONG, UKREP JLG HONG KONG
YOUR TELNO 267: EC DELEGATION OFFICE IN HONG KONG
1 We are grateful for your efforts to further the longstanding UK objective of establishing an EC Office in Hong Kong.
•
2.
TUR makes a persuasive case that at least some items on the Commission wish list are reasonable. We are consulting Legal Advisers and other interested departments on the possibility of finding ways to satisfy them within existing Hong Kong Legislation and would be grateful for an early sight of the informal note promised by Nuttall. We will also examine what Legislation might be necessary to meet the Commission's aims, and assess the possibility of enacting it.
3.
But the fact of the matter is that a large Consular Corps appears to be surviving successfully in Hong Kong within the constraints of the existing law. We would, incidentally, find it useful to know from Hong Kong the position of Consulates-General under present legislation as regards inviolability of their diplomatic bags. Do you offer informal assurances of inviolability? Could they also be given to the EC Delegation? There are obvious difficulties in our lobbying for greater privileges for the EC Office than are currently accorded to any Consular Mission, including those of Member States, in Hong Kong not to mention the risk that other Missions would jump on the band wagon should special arrangements for the EC Delegation be made via Legislation. But if we could assure the Commission that the EC Delegation would be treated no worse than the existing Consular Corps that might help to reconcile them to what is on offer.
4. A further complication is the suggestion that the HKG should seek Chinese agreement to maintain after 1997 a status for the Delegation which is as close to that of the Delegation in Beijing as possible. No quote Mission unquote or Consulate in Hong Kong has been given any guarantees as to what will happen post 1997.
1
PAGE CONFIDENTIAL