TNAG-1260-FCO40-1600-Briefings-for-Ministers-and-FCO-officials-on-the-future-of-H-1983 — Page 45

on WP.

CONFIDENTIAL

DSR 11C

STEERING BRIEF FOR THE PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING WITH

CHANCELLOR KOHL ON 21 SEPTEMBER

1

INTRODUCTION

1. Chancellor Kohl responded very readily to the Prime

Minister's suggestion that they could meet in-Bon

21 September after her visit to the Netherlands and

British Forces Germany (BFG). Time will be short,

however, and as the meeting will take place over a meal,

there will scarcely be opportunities for detailed

discussion.

UK OBJECTIVES

2. On the Community (Brief No ....), the Prime Minister

will want to concentrate on the Stuttgart negotiation and

the run-up to Athens. Progress so far has been slow and

it will be important to-make sure the negotiations

concentrate on the key items and do not get side-tracked.

The Prime Minister will want to welcome German support

for our safety net ideas and urge on Chancellor Kohl the

essential need to get agreement on a scheme on these

lines; she will also want to make clear the difficulties

we have with the Danish 'convergence fund' proposal which

the Germans are also likely to oppose. The Germans have

not so far supported our proposal for a strict financial

guideline to control the growth of CAP expenditure,

although there are those in the Finance Ministry who

would like to do so. The Prime Minister will want to

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explain why we consider the financial guideline an

essential part of decisions at Athens to rationalise the

CONFIDENTIAL

/CAP

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