The Role of the European Union in Conflict Resolution in Nepal
The Role of the European Union in Conflict Resolution in Nepal

Summary/Abstract: At the beginning of the 21st century, the European Union (EU) has ambitions to play a more important role in international relations. In recent years, it has developed relations with partners across the globe. The EU put stress not only on political and economic cooperation, but it wants to promote some of the values that it considers important. Among these values are democracy, social welfare, human rights and liberalism. One of the key aspects of European foreign policy (EFP) contributed inmanifold ways to peace support operations. As regards the European Commission(EC), it has a strong external relations acquis in projecting peace abroad, notably in the form of preventive diplomacy and long-term civilian peacebuilding. In this context, European Commission’s assistance to Nepal dates back to 1977. In June 1996, the EC–Nepal Framework Co-operation Agreement cameinto force, outlining the general conditions for providing EC technical assistanceand co-operation. The principal objectives of this Agreement are to enhanceand develop the various aspects of co-operation between the parties. The EC’sassistance to Nepal during the period 2007–2013 has an estimated budget of EUR 120 million and will target the following three areas: education (with humanrights, conflict prevention and good governance as cross-cutting issues); stabilityand peacebuilding; trade facilitation and economic capacity building.3 To further consolidate its effort, on 8 July 2011 the European Union agreed to providea grant of EUR 22 million for the implementation of the Support for Stabilityand Peace Building program. Thus peacebuilding & conflict resolution is one ofthe key priority areas of the assistance from the European Commission to Nepal. This paper outlines the European Union’s support to Nepal’s conflict resolution initiatives and its implications on the conflict resolution process of Nepal.

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