H.E. Mrs. Daniela Mihaela Cămărășan, Ambassador of Romania to the Republic of Croatia, visited the University of Rijeka on 26 November 2024, accompanied by Mrs. Ştefania Carmen Florea, Deputy Head of Mission and Minister Counsellor. On behalf of the UNIRI Rector, Prof. Snježana Prijić-Samaržija, Ph.D., the esteemed guests were welcomed by Prof. Gordan Jelenić, Ph.D., Vice-Rector for Science and Arts, and Prof. Senka Maćešić, Ph.D., Vice-Rector for Digitalisation and Development.
Vice-Rectors Jelenić and Maćešić briefly presented the University of Rijeka, emphasizing its strong international activities and innovative approaches to education thanks to its membership in the YUFE Alliance. Given the results of the University of Rijeka to date and valuable feedback she had received from her predecessors, Ambassador Cămărășan is determined to deepen cooperation and find new avenues of collaboration, with special emphasis on robotics, engineering, and IT as possible areas of common interest. Bearing in mind that Rijeka is a port city, Madam Ambassador wishes to connect Rijeka with Constanța, the largest Romanian port on the Black Sea.
The participants expressed their shared desire to improve good working relations, with an emphasis on concrete forms of cooperation between the University of Rijeka and Romanian higher education institutions. During the discussion, the participants also touched upon the history of educational institutions in Croatia and Romania, the influence of Slavic languages on the Romanian language, but also on the major, unexpected upheavals in the presidential elections in Romania.
During her stay in Rijeka, Ambassador Cămărășan met with representatives of the local government, and will also meet with members of the Romanian minority in Rijeka. As she says, for Romanians in Croatia, language is the main element that preserves their national identity, as well as a cohesive factor of unity in the local community. That is why the Ambassador’s mission is to promote Romanian culture, language, and tradition, and she is particularly committed to preserving Istro-Romanian, the smallest of the four historical dialects of the Romanian language in terms of the number of speakers. Today, Istro-Romanian is spoken southwest of Učka in the Boljunčica valley (Šušnjevica, Nova Vas, Jesenovik, Brdo, Kostrčan, Letaj) and in one village on Ćićarija (Žejane).
