European Parliament delegate stresses responsibility and commitment

Chair of the European Parliament's Delegation for South Asia, Neena Gill has said that all the players of Nepalese political system should committed and responsible for the conducive environment for free and fair elections in Nepal.

Talking to the media persons in Kathmandu on Friday, Gill said" There is an urgent need for all parties to keep with the Comprehensive Peace Accord and to respect it.

Gill said European Parliament (EP) wants to support parliamentary democracy and wants to see a successful outcome to this peace process. Gill, however, expressed her concern over the continuous acts of violence, extortions and intimidations.

Indicating to the incident of Maoists intimidation, Gill said business and economy of the country has can not be held for ransom. "For the development of business and economy of the country and the free movement of people, this sort of incident should be stopped", Gill said.

The EP chair also opined that without interim government, there would no solid basis of going to the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections.

Similarly, the EP delegation chief said that Bhutanese refugee problem should be resolved as they (European Union) can not indefinitely support the refugees. She said that some of the refugees can be housed to the United States and they can continue their campaign to go back home as 100 million people can not be back home overnight.

A 5-strong working group of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with South Asia and the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (D-SAARC) had rounded up talks today with the Nepali authorities.

During its 3 day stay, the Delegation visited Kathmandu and had the opportunity to meet key players such as Prime Minister Koirala, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister KP Sharma Oli. Members of the European Parliament also met with their counterparts from the interim Legislature Parliament, led by Speaker Subash Chandra Nemwang.

Election-related questions were discussed with Chief Election Commissioner Bhojraj Pokhrel while Parliamentarians also addressed human rights and arms management issues with Special Representative and UNMIN chief Ian Martin and head of the OHCHR Lena Sundh.

This was the second visit of an European Parliament Delegation in nine months.

The main objectives of the visit of the members were to focus on the political situation in the country in the run-up to the constituent assembly elections which are currently scheduled for mid-June on one hand, and to examine whether any progress can be made as far as the Bhutanese refugees are concerned.