E.R.
CONFIDENTIAL.
3.
TREVI
9.
Mr Engell said that he shared the Home Secretary's view of the importance of ensuring that the European Commission was discouraged from muscling in on the TREVI arrangements.
EUROPEAN COMMON INFORMATION SYSTEN
10. Mr Engell said that, while the Danish Government remained in favour of strengthening international co-operation, it tended not to support initiatives which led to the creation of large bureaucracies. They had no sympathy for the idea of a supra-national European police force. His Government were also sceptical about the need for a common information syster for member states. This would cause registration problems under existing Danish law and would involve the creation of a large bureaucratic machine. There were strict controls on information held on individuals and this was a very sensitive subject politically. The Home Secretary shared this view. The common information system would be an expensive piece of machinery for small return and seemed to have little practical benefit. Much of the information likely to be stored on it would be of little use to countries other than those who had placed the information into the system. Matters were still at an early stage and it was possible that in the light of the postponement of the signing of the supplementary Schengen Agreement, the Germans might not push so hard.
CONTROL OF THE ACQUISITION AND POSSESSION OF WEAPONS
11.
The Home Secretary set out the changes in legislation which had followed the Hungerford shootings. The special position accorded to sportsmen and marksmen under Article 12(2) of the EC Directive would drive a coach and horses through the United Kingdom's domestic controls on visitors, introduced under the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988. In response, Mr Engell said that the Danes would be likely to find unacceptable the sort of situation described by the Home Secretary as being a result of the Directive. There were very strict regulations in Denmark, but the Danes' initial view had been that the proposed Directive would have no impact on domestic legislation. But the Directive had not been discussed in detail, nor had it been the subject of a Parliamentary debate.
HONG KONG
12. The Home Secretary asked Mr Engell whether the Danish Government proposed special measures to help retain key personnel working in Danish companies in Hong Kong. Mr Engell said that the British Ambassador had lobbied him recently on the same point. There were a number of large Danish firms in Hong Kong and the Government was starting to look at ways of helping their employees. They would try to be as helpful as possible.
Private Office
13 March 1990
Pein Srm.
PRC STORR
Private Secretary
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