Trevi Group
01 January 1991
Trevi Group
artdoc May=1991
House of Commons written answer 18.12.90
Mr. Michael Irvine: To ask the Secretary of State for the
Home Department what was the outcome of the meetings of Trevi and
European Community Immigration Ministers in Rome on 6 and 7
December.
Mr. Kenneth Baker: The meeting of Trevi Ministers endorsed
the good progress made under the Italian presidency in developing
Further measures to strengthen practical police cooperation, in
particular as regards work towards the creation of a European
drugs intelligence unit, work on the establishment of a European
police information system to help combat the most serious forms
of crime, and an initiative to provide joint training to police
officers from drug producer and transit countries which has
already resulted in a three-week pilot course. We also agreed
in principle to the establishment of a permanent secretariat for
Trevi, and asked for detailed work on this to be carried out
during the Luxembourg presidency.
The meeting of Ministers concerned with immigration was the
ninth in the series of meetings held towards the end of each
presidency since 1986 and the first which I have myself attended.
Ministers had before them a report from senior officials which
set out the work undertaken during
the Italian presidency.
In particular, we welcomed tile progress that had been made on
the draft convention on the crossing of the external borders of
the member states of the Community and invited the ad hoc group
on immigration to complete consideration of the remaining issues.
We also invited the ad hoc group to consider what measures are
necessary to implement article 8A of the treaty of Rome as
regards frontiers. Both my predecessor and I have continued to
make clear during the Italian presidency the United Kingdom's
profound reservation as to the complete abolition of immigration
controls at internal Community borders. We shall, however,
participate actively in the study of measures for the
implementation of article 8A Ministers also discussed the
question of migration from central and eastern Europe in
readiness for the Council of Europe ministerial conference to be
held in Vienna in January 1991.