European Union Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, H.E Erika Hasznos, presents her credentials

In front of the Governor-General she stated:

“As the European Union envoy, I have been entrusted with the mission to foster a stronger partnership with Papua New Guinea. Our partnership is built on the solid foundation of our long years of close cooperation. I have had the privilege of arriving in time to witness the country’s 50th anniversary of independence. During my mission I look forward to jointly celebrating our bilateral 50th anniversary. The European Union and Papua New Guinea have many things in common, despite the geographical distance.”

She referred to shared fundamental foreign policy principles such as peaceful coexistence and upholding the international law, to the commitment to focus on common long-term challenges, in particular climate change, and on on-going cooperation on good governance, human rights, youth empowerment, gender equality and elimination of gender-based violence. Looking ahead, the Ambassador highlighted the European Union’s wish to invest in critical infrastructure projects that support climate resilience via our Global Gateway programme.

About the Ambassador
Before joining Papua New Guinea as Ambassador of the European Union, Ms Erika Hasznos was Head of Sector "Europe" at the European External Action Service (EEAS) in Brussels, working with the European Union’s common security and defence policy operations and missions in Ukraine, Moldova, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia and Armenia. Beforehand, she had served as Deputy Head of Delegation in the EU Delegation to Moldova. She had also been posted to the EU Delegation to Bangladesh. Before her career in the European External Action Service, she had worked 10 years in multilateral climate change diplomacy. She had served as EU negotiator at the UN climate change conferences, working with carbon market mechanisms. Earlier, she had been Deputy Head of the Hungarian Climate Presidency team.