Following the debate which took place during the sitting of 10 March 2009, the European Parliament adopted by 53 votes to none with 2 abstentions, a resolution on Guinea-Bissau. The resolution had been tabled by the EPP-ED, PES ALDE, UEN and Greens/ALE groups.

Parliament strongly condemns the assassinations of the President of Guinea-Bissau, João Bernardo Vieira, and the army's chief of staff, General Tagmé Na Waié, offering sincere condolences to their families and to the people of Guinea-Bissau. It recalls that the President of Guinea-Bissau was shot by renegade soldiers on 2 March 2009, the day after a bomb attack which killed the army's chief of staff, General Batista Tagmé Na Waié.

Members urge the Guinea-Bissau authorities thoroughly to investigate these crimes and to bring those responsible to justice. They call on the international community to exert all the necessary influence to achieve that objective. The cases involving the assassinations of Generals Ansumane Mané (2000) and Veríssimo Correia Seabra (2004) have not yet been cleared up, nor have the respective killers been located, indicted and tried. Parliament stresses that impunity is not an answer. It welcomes the army's pledge to respect Guinea-Bissau's Constitution, and urges strict respect for the country's constitutional order. All parties are urged to resolve their disputes by political and peaceful means within the framework of Guinea-Bissau's institutions.

Parliament opposes any attempt to change the government by unconstitutional means. It hopes that presidential elections will be held within 60 days, as stipulated in the Constitution, and calls on the Member States and the international community to make sure Guinea-Bissau receives the financial and technical support it needs in order to conduct credible elections. There is a danger that Guinea-Bissau will remain unstable and unable to cope with rampant corruption or change its status as a key drugs transit country as long as its institutions remain structurally weak.

The resolution calls on the Council, the Commission, the Member States, the United Nations, the AU, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) and other members of the international community to assist in preserving its constitutional order and to continue to support peace-building efforts in the country. It calls for immediate talks between the various political factions in the country with a view to producing a programme to which all stakeholders commit, which would include speeding up security sector reform, a revised electoral law, public administration reform, anti-corruption measures, macroeconomic stabilisation and consultation with civil society about national reconciliation. In this respect, Parliament welcomes the decision taken on 3 March 2009 by ECOWAS to despatch a ministerial delegation to Guinea-Bissau, and the similar decision taken the same day by the CPLP to send a political mission to Guinea-Bissau.

It draws attention, with deep concern, to the threat that the transhipment of drugs from as far afield as Colombia and Afghanistan and human trafficking poses to the consolidation of peace in Guinea-Bissau and to the stability of the West African region, and calls on the United Nations agencies, with appropriate support from ECOWAS, to develop a regional plan of action to address this challenge. The UN Peacebuilding Commission is asked to help keep promised donor aid (both financial and technical) flowing, in particular for security sector and administrative reforms and the fight against drug trafficking.

Lastly, Parliament calls on the Council and Commission to keep providing advice and assistance in support of the security sector reform in Guinea-Bissau through its ESDP mission "EU SSR Guinea-Bissau" and to report on the progress already achieved.