Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor opened a conference on the role of women in politics in Zagreb on Friday.

"The role of women in politics carries weight as an indicator of the continual development of our democracy. We must make continual progress in that regard," the PM said.

The conference was organised by the Croatian Statehood Foundation, the Konrad Adenauer foundation, and Media Servis, in cooperation with the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

PM Kosor said that in everything she did she tried to contribute to women's equal participation in all areas of life.

"As regards the representation of women, the situation in Croatia is good in some areas," Kosor said, warning that women doing the same jobs as men were still paid less than men, and that at job interviews, men were never asked whether and when they planned to have children.

Gender equality is one of the most important values of the Croatian Constitution and it is incorporated in a law which clearly says that "in the third election period women representation must be at least 40 percent," said Kosor.

She recalled that this year Europe was celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration and the beginning of European integration.

"At that beginning, sixty years ago, there was not a single woman head of state in Europe, and today there are eight women who are heads of state or government," she said.

The chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Education and Culture, Doris Pack, who is also president of the European People's Party Women, said in her address that unlike men, women in politics were better in recognising the importance of education for the future, in finding pragmatic solutions, and in achieving their goals in an indirect way.

She said that German Chancellor Angela Merkel could serve as an example to all women because she was aware of her power, but carefully analysed her decisions and was not pretentious, vain or overly self-confident.

Croatia's PM has similar principles and conduct, Pack said, congratulating Croatians on their PM.