Beirut, March 20: Ambassador Patrick Renauld, chief of the European Union Delegation to Lebanon, made the following comments in a brief address launching the Samir Kassir prize:

“As you know, the association agreement between the European Union and Lebanon will enter into full force on April first, while the negotiations continue on a plan of action within the framework of the European neighborhood policy. You also know that those two tools are based on the international values of democracy and the freedom of expression.

But we cannot say that the state of freedom of expression has improved since the assassinations of Samir Kassir and Gibran Tueni. Furthermore, it does not seem that a debate over this fundamental freedom is in process on the institutional level: A lawyer may not express himself outside his country? A journalist may not report the facts about corruption?”