The European Women’s Forum, an extension of the European Action Movement (EAM), was founded on Saturday, March 1. EAM’s Deputy Chairperson, MP Zoia Jalba, was elected to chair the new structure, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Forum was created at the conference themed “Women’s Role in Moldova’s European Integration”. During event, the participants approved the EWF Regulations and the EAM Declaration on the integration of Moldova into the European Union and its accession to the North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). EWF consists of women, members and supporters of the EAM. According to the regulations, the objectives of the Forum are the promotion of EAM, the European cultural values and human rights among the women of Moldova, the improvement of women’s social status and the defence of their rights, promotion of women in the decision-making process, and others. “Unfortunately we have to ascertain that the women in Moldova have to carry the greatest part of the burden in such matters as economy, family and education”, EAM leader Anatol Petrencu stated at the opening of the conference. “The number of women working as teachers, involved in production activities and social assistance keeps rising. At the same time, they are poorly represented in government bodies”, Petrencu remarked. MP Zoia Jalba noted that although the national legislation does not contain clearly discriminatory provisions or any conditions which would limit women’s participation in the public life, Moldova lacks a well-organised system of activities focused on reaching gender equality. Women are deprived of equal opportunities for obtaining power. The chairman of the newly founded Forum encouraged the women participating in the event to explain everybody that the only to get rid of poverty in Moldova is to join the European community and participate actively in the public and political life in order to solve the problems of Moldova. The European Action Movement was created in October 2006 as a social-political organisation aiming to integrate the Republic of Moldova into the European Union.