The authors examined what European encounters, especially of young people, contribute to the development of Europe and what they can bring under certain, innovative conditions and dynamics. For this purpose, projects in the formal and informal education sector with specific reference to Europe were collected and analyzed. In addition, experts from the European encounter were interviewed about their assessments and experiences with regard to success factors, framework conditions and the desired role of the sponsors. Recommendations could be derived from the results and on the basis of psychological theories: On the one hand, a method pool was developed in which a multitude of methods were put together and their learning effectiveness assessed. On the other hand, detailed information is provided on which building blocks must be taken into account in order to design European encounter projects as sustainably and effectively as possible.