30/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - A delegation of the European United Left/Nordic Greens Left headed by Francis Wurtz took part in a conference this week in Chisinau. The conference was also attended by Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, the president of the Parliament, Marian Lupu, Ukraine's independent trade union leader, Oleg Vernyk, and Vlery Ukhnalev, leader of the Belarus Communist Party (opposition). In a press release, Mr Wurtz mainly notes the efforts made by the Moldovan authorities to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict in Transdnistria and to improve the economic situation, with, above all, in five years' time, doubling of expenditure on education, a five-fold increase in funding for pensions and a reduction in poverty from 80% to 27% of the population (see latest Parliament resolution in EUROPE 9154).