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KATHMANDU: Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat has urged the European Union (EU) to remove Nepal from their aviation safety concern list.
He made this request in a sideline meeting with EU Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen in Marrakesh, Morocco on Thursday. Minister Mahat is currently in Morocco participating in the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In the meeting Minister Mahat urged the EU to increase its economic assistance to Nepal, Minister Mahat's secretariat stated.
Since 2013 the EU has put Nepal's airline companies on its list of air safety concerns and due to this the airline companies in the country are not allowed to operate flights in the European skies. The EU had refused to de-list Nepali airlines from the list of aviation concerns when it carried out a monitoring of Nepali airlines in 2079 BS. It had announced its plan of conducting an on-site monitoring of the status of air safety issues in February 2023, but the EU team did not come to Nepal for the monitoring following the air crash near Pokhara International Airport, on January 15.
The EU's security committee however conducted an on-site study of Nepali airline companies and aviation security in August/September and the Finance Minister has made this request in this context.
On the occasion, the EU Commissioner said that they would carry out work on this matter through the EU Embassy in Nepal and also hold discussions on this.
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