The Europea Para Taekwondo Union (EPTU) are hoping this development will attract athletes from a more wide spread of countries, and to give entrants the chance to participate in more events ahead of the sport's Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020.

At a European Taekwondo Union (ETU) Council meeting, attended by EPTU President Aleksandr Shlychkov, along with ETU vice-president Igor Yuzefovich, as well as representatives from the Moldovan Taekwondo Federation, the proposed dates of April 17 to 21 were also accepted.

Athletes will be classified on April 18 and 19, with the competition date set for April 20.

This year's European Para Taekwondo Championships will take place in Moldova's capital Chisinau, following the 2014 event in Antalya ©EPTU

During the Championships, the 2nd International Seminar for Classifiers will also take place, where doctors who speak fluent English will be given the chance to become an international classifier and to attend future national and international Para-taekwondo championships.

The event will take place around the same time of the Moldovan Taekwondo Championships, and they will be the fourth edition of the competition, with the first staged in Moscow in 2011.

The Championships were then hosted by Bucharest and last year's tournament was staged in Antalya in Turkey.

As well as being included at a Paralympic Games for the first time, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) also announced that Asia and Africa will both host their inaugural continental championships this year.

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