Held on 1-11 July 2019, the seventh instalment of the Antall József Summer School featured 30 participants representing 21 countries including the V4, the Western Balkans, the Eastern Partnership member states, as well as the USA, Canada, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Mexico. The event was realised in partnership with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Hungary, New Eastern Europe, the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, and the Centre of European Studies at the University of Economics, Prague, and with the support of the International Visegrad Fund, NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division, and the Hungarian game-providing company Szerencsejáték Zrt.

The seventh instalment of the Antall József Summer School (AJSS) revolved around the role of the Visegrad Countries in international and regional organisations, such as the European Union, NATO, and the OSCE. In addition, the participants discussed current political and foreign and security policy related issues with the help of 45 lecturers To help them improve their way of critical thinking and rhetorical and reasoning abilities, the participants had the chance to take part in various interactive workshops and simulation games.

Held in the Petőfi Literary Museum, the event was ceremonially opened with speeches by Veronika Antall-Horváth, Deputy Director of the Antall József Knowledge Centre, Frank Spengler, Resident Representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Hungary, and Attila Steiner, Deputy State Secretary for EU Relations. The speeches were followed by a keynote lecture with the title Quo vadis Central Europe?, featuring Anna-Katharina Deininger, Focal Point on Youth and Security in the Office of the OSCE Secretary General, that gave an overview of the role of the youth in shaping the future of Central Europe and the connected activities of OSCE.

Our lecturers included Jarolim Antal, Director of the Centre of European Studies at the University of Economics, Prague, Barbora Maronková, Director of the NATO Information and Documentation Centre, Gergely Németh, Deputy State Secretary at the Hungarian Ministry of Defence, Stefan Cibian, Executive Director of the Fagaras Research Institute, Yevgeniya Gaber, Deputy Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine, Maryna Vorotnyuk, Researcher at the CEU Centre for Neighbourhood Studies, Adam Reichardt, Editor-in-Chief of New Eastern Europe, Tomas Brolik, editor at Respekt, and Tomas Strazay, Research Fellow at the Slovak Foreign Policy Association.

Participants also had the chance to take part in extracurricular activities which aimed to transfer knowledge on Central European values and our cultural heritage. This way, participants visited the Parliament of Hungary and the Memento Park, and the cities of Visegrad and Szentendre through a ferry trip, as well as learned about Hungarian wines through a wine-tasting event and other participants’ culture through the international night.

At the end of the event, the time capsule of AJSS was created by the participants who listed the most important processes going on in the world and their potential impact on the future. This will enable future participants of AJSS to see how 30 people in 2019 perceived the world they lived in.