Newly appointed envoy presents credentials

KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 27

Newly appointed Ambassador and Head of the delegation of the European Union to Nepal, Nona Deprez, presented her credentials to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari at a special function organised at the Office of the President today.

“I am extremely honoured and happy to take up my duties as the EU Ambassador to Nepal and look forward to discovering the country, to meet the Nepalese and to work closely with all Nepali institutions, civil society, private sector, media, international partners and all relevant political, social and economic stakeholders,” Ambassador Deprez said.

Nepal and the EU have developed more than four decades of diplomatic and friendly relations. The need to work jointly on global issues in the wake of new challenges such as pandemics, climate change and threat to multilateralism has become an urgency, Ambassador Deprez added.

According to a press release issued by a delegation of the European Union to Nepal, the EU has been a reliable development partner and one of the biggest donors to Nepal for around half a century. It has been cooperating on three priorities agreed with the Government of Nepal rural development, education and democracy and decentralisation.

The EU supports Nepal in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in graduating from LDC status and in improving Nepal’s resilience to the adverse effects of climate change. The total assistance for the current programming cycle, 2014- 2020, amounts to EURO 360 million.

When the COVID crisis hit Nepal, the European Union provided immediate response in mobilising a package of Euro 75 million. This support was closely coordinated with the EU member states working as one in a streamlined “Team Europe Initiative”. Globally, the EU helped raise Euro 16 billion to finance research on vaccines, tests and treatments for the whole world. “This pandemic shows the fragility of our globalised world. Global responses to this systemic challenge require cooperation and coordination based on universal values and rules. They require further multilateralism,” reads the release.

Sharing the same values as Nepal, the EU elaborated the European Green Deal as a means to collectively address the COVID crisis while building up a better, greener future that would fight climate change, protect the environment and biodiversity and promote sustainable development and sustainable connectivity, states the release.

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A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 28, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.

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