TNAG-0752-FCO40-956-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 147

if this happened.

CONFIDENTIAL

EEC

12. Dr Owen said he was glad the decision to accept the

Commission's Opinion on Portugal had been taken at the Council

of Ministers in June. With the Germans in the Presidency, there

should be no problem over the opening of negotiations.

It

was important to have the Spanish Opinion before the end of the

year and there would be advantage in Spain and Portugal joining

at the same time. Dr Owen said he had made no secret of the

fact that Britain would have liked all three applicants to join

together. However, the applications were out of phase and the

Greeks would see it as a rebuff if theirs was now delayed. The

applications must be treated on their intrinsic merits. D: Owen

urged the Portuguese to get on with the preparations for the

negotiations; he felt that no commitments on sensitive areas in

the Greek application should be made until negotiations on the

Portuguese and Spanish applications were under way. He only

talked of a community of 12, not 10, and had no intention of doing

anything else. He hoped this would get people to see the

expansion from 9 to 12 as one jump.

Although there were a few:

reluctant hearts, the Community was firmly committed to expansion to

there was no going back. Over transitional periods he was

12.

flexible.

13.

Dr Owen went on to say that Britain would be happy to help

CONFIDENTIAL

/Portugal