Photo Courtesy: Tourism Mail
November 21: Nepal is preparing to urge the European Union to lift the restriction imposed on the airlines companies of Nepal to fly in the skies of European countries during the upcoming meeting of the Nepal-European Union Joint Commission to be held in Kathmandu later this week.   

According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the 13th meeting of the Joint Commission is scheduled to take place in Kathmandu on Wednesday, November 24.    
The Deputy Managing Director of the European External Affairs Service for Asia and Pacific Region Paolo Pampaloni has already arrived in Kathmandu in order to attend the meeting. Pampaloni arrived in the capital on Satuday leading a three-member delegation of the European Union, RSS further reported.

The meeting is expected to discuss regional and multilateral issues of mutual interests and all dimensions of the relations between Nepal and the European Union, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told RSS.    
The meeting will also discuss the overall aspects of bilateral development cooperation. The EU has been providing support to Nepal in a number of areas, including trade and investment, commerce, energy, science and technology, agriculture, human resource development, environmental protection, post-earthquake reconstruction, rural development and education.    
Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Poudel will lead the Nepali delegation during the meeting. The Nepali side is expected to emphatically raise the issue of lifting restriction imposed on the country's aviation sector in the skies of European countries, RSS reported.    
The EU is likely to remove the flight restriction considering Nepal’s commitment to aviation safety standards incorporated in the new civil aviation bill that has been presented in the parliament.