ReactON! aimed to serve as a safe space for sharing, analyzing, discussing, comparing, and publishing ideas and opinions, built upon a quality knowledge base. During the program, our goal was for young people to learn how to become smart, active European citizens and deepen their understanding of the processes that sustain the world around them. This collaborative partnership successfully promoted peer learning and cross-border knowledge exchange between neighboring regions of Slovakia and Hungary. The project achieved significant success by providing participants not only with theoretical knowledge but also practical experiences, which helped them better understand political and social processes. As a result of their work, a tangible, widely applicable, and much-needed outcome was produced: a handbook comparing Hungarian and Slovak legal systems. The young participants were able to assert their own viewpoints in international debates, mastered the tools of respectful debate, and became familiar with constructive dialogue, further contributing to the success of the program.
The European Commission’s initiative to declare 2022 the European Year of Youth inspired our organization to join the Union’s objective of involving youth in democratic life. Additionally, this project aimed to promote two of the six European priorities for the 2019-2024 period: A new push for European democracy Promoting our European way of life Immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down universities and the world at large, misinformation began to spread rapidly. This was followed by the politicization of the vaccination issue, America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the energy crisis, all of which once again proved that young people need guidance to analyze these events. Our motivation was to present various new perspectives to young people, enabling them to examine these issues in all their complexity, stripping away the layers of everyday media consumption, clickbait headlines, and oversimplified political communication. We aimed to show them the intricate processes that surround us and help them adopt a mindset that not only aids in understanding these specific issues but also in gaining a better understanding of the world.