October 9: Newly-appointed European Union Ambassador to Nepal, Véronique Lorenzo, shared that green recovery, human capital and federalism are the three main agendas of the EU for Nepal. The newly appointed ambassador made such remarks during an interaction program with Nepali journalists at the EU delegation Office in Lazimpat on Monday. 

"We have three priorities on our agenda for Nepal. The first one is green recovery investment in clean energy. The second priority is human capital, and we have been investing in education for the last 30 years. There are good results but there is a lot to achieve in terms of the quality of education. We are working on access, inclusion and also on bigger agendas. The third one is governance, essentially to assist in the implementation of the federalism," said Lorenzo. 

Besides, she shared that her priority is to reach out to the widest audience possible in Nepal.

“Young people understand better what the priorities are and what the problems are,” the EU envoy added.

The coming year marks the 50th anniversary between Nepal and the European Union, and Lorenzo shared that she wants to make it grand by organizing several events. 

"We have 50 years of EU-Nepal relations coming next year and we would like to make it a grand celebration and have several events in different areas. The intention behind this is to reach out to the widest audience because often people don't understand the EU, why it was formed and why it is there. So it is a wonderful political project to achieve which we think needs to be shared with the widest audience," she added. 

She also took time to condemn the attack on Israel as a “terrible attack”.

She also pledged to continue supporting Nepal when it graduated to a middle-income country.

Regarding the EU’s restriction on Nepali airlines for more than 10 years, Lorenzo shared that there has been progress in Nepal’s aviation sector and are awaiting a report from EU’s assessment mission before the ban can be lifted. 

According to Lorenzo, the assessment mission was held from September 11 to 15. It was a technical mission led by the European Commission with the participation of EASA and experts from member states. 

“They conducted their assessment and are in the process of writing a report. This report will go to the Air Safety Committee of EU. The committee will review the report and decide if Nepal can be removed from the air safety concern list. The air safety committee will meet on November 14 -16th and make its decision public,” she added.