Brussels, 16/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission announced on Tuesday 16 June that the EU was to send an observation team to the presidential elections in Guinea-Bissau on 28 June. Four experts and the team leader, former MEP Johan Van Hecke (ALDE, Belgium), have been in the country since 6 June. They will be joined by six long-term observers and 10 short-term observers. In addition to the observation operations, the Commission has granted €1.5 million in direct aid for the organisation of the elections, which follow the assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira in March. Highlighting the sensitive situation of the country (a minister who was standing for President and a former minister were killed by the armed forces on 5 June), External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner expressed her hope that the presidential elections would “bring more stability to Guinea-Bissau”. Her colleague in Development, Louis Michel, sees the elections as “an opportunity to bring together the positive political forces of Guinea-Bissau around the ambitious agenda of reforms urgently needed in the country”. (A.B./transl.rt)