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Foreign &
Commonwealth
Office
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Foreign &
Commonwealth
Office
4 May 2004
Director-General, EU
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Stewart Eldon CMG OBE
King Charles Street
HMA
London
Dublin
SW1A 2AH<Address Line 4>
Tel: 020 7008 2270
Fax: 020 7008 3936
E-mail: [email address]
Dear Stewart
HANDLING EXTREMIST PARTIES IN THE EU 1. Some of you will have been following the work which we did recently on handling
extremist parties in Europe, picking up Charles Crawford’s reporting of the rise of Lepper
in Poland and Ric Todd’s analysis of his contacts with Meciar. I attach Simon Manley’s
submission on the subject and a copy of the Private Secretary’s reply, confirming the
Foreign Secretary’s agreement. This process has established that:
You should maintain contacts where you have them with extremist parties: we
recognise that such contacts can help in persuading them – particularly those in the
new Member States - of the need to respect the fundamental values of the Union, the
principles and approach embodied in the acquis, and the expectations of foreign
investors;
Such contacts should generally be at your level, but we should think carefully, on a
case-by-case basis, about contact with visitors from London, whether officials or
Ministers. The general rule should be that there should only be such contacts where
there is genuine business to do, with potential benefit for the UK;
New contacts should be authorised at Team Leader level back in London;
Where the politicians or party espouse racist views we shall need to clear those
contacts with the PUS and Minister for Europe.
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2. I hope this is helpful. If in doubt about any particular politician or party, don’t hesitate to
talk to us first.
Yours
Kim Darroch
Kim Darroch
Director General, EU
cc:
HMAs EU Posts
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