At the beginning of September, the Romanian city of Iași hosted the Rotary Youth Exchange conference for Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa (EEMA).

The event was attended by 159 participants from 29 countries and 77 districts. The largest delegations came from Brazil (36), Mexico (16), Taiwan (11) and the USA together with France (10). Our district D2240 was represented by four delegates, three of whom were from Slovakia.

The proceedings took place in a friendly, creative atmosphere under the motto “CHANGE PERSPECTIVE - be the peace”. They opened with an excellent lecture by the historian Professor C. Turliuc from the Al. I. Cuza University in Iași entitled “Where is humanity heading?”.

The working part of the conference consisted of group and panel discussions. One early-evening session was devoted to the so-called Country Fair (see photo), where each participating nation presented itself.

As the delegate for the Czech Republic, I attended a meeting of the countries grouped within EEMA, at which we established EEMA as an independent legal entity. This step will increase transparency within RYE, just as the creation of RYE2240 did in our own district.

On Sunday afternoon we took a three-hour walk around the city. Iași pleasantly surprised me. It is Romania’s third-largest city, with roughly 300,000 inhabitants. Lying about 20 km from Moldova, it is a cultural and historical centre and a city full of students. Personally, it reminds me of Brno.

And where will EEMA be held next time? From 10 to 12 September 2026 EEMA will take place in Bordeaux, France.

As was repeatedly emphasised at the conference, RYE is among the most important and useful services in Rotary, and this gathering once again confirmed that in full.

Jaroslav Šmarda, RC Třebíč