Rina Pape Kofoed, students at Greenland Business School, must represent Greenland in The Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) Youth Network.
The network brings together 25 young people from the 13 countries and territories that are not members of the EU, but have historical and political connections to European countries. In addition to Greenland, the network includes members from Aruba, French Polynesia and Saba.
Rina Pape Kofoed, students at Greenland Business School, must represent Greenland in The Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT) Youth Network.
The network brings together 25 young people from the 13 countries and territories that are not members of the EU, but have historical and political connections to European countries. In addition to Greenland, the network includes members from Aruba, French Polynesia and Saba.
– I applied for a place in the OCT Youth Network because I am interested in politics and want to get involved, says Rina Pape Kofoed to Sermitsiaq.AG.
Over the next year, participants in the OCT Youth Network will learn a lot about the EU and the partnership arrangement they have with the 13 overseas territories
Among other things, they will go on a study trip to Brussels to visit the European Commission and meet EU politicians. And of course the participants must also get to know each other and exchange experiences.
Actually, Rina Pape Kofoed had not thought much about Greenland’s relationship with the EU until one day at the studio they were visited by various EU politicians and officials. It piqued her curiosity and made her want to understand the cooperation between Greenland and the EU better.
– We have heard the word EU, but what is it really and how does it work?
It is especially the opportunity to strengthen the influence of young people and create more opportunities for them that motivates Rina Pape Kofoed to participate in the OCT Youth Network
– Young people must be heard in matters that affect our everyday life and our lives, she says.
Rina Pape Kofoed hopes that after a year in the OCT Youth Network she has been equipped to be able to represent Greenland elsewhere in the future – and contribute with her perspective as a young person from Tasiilaq
– It means a lot to me to be able to contribute my experiences from East Greenland as part of the overall Greenlandic perspective, says Rina Pape Kofoed.
The OCT Youth Network counts a total of 25 young people between the ages of 20 and 28 from Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories and Antarctic Territories, Greenland, New Caledonia, Saba, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Wallis and Futuna.
In addition to Rina Pape Kofoed, Hanne Louise Panituaq Petersen, who studies law at Ilisimatusarfik, and Bea Petrussen, who studies culture and social history at Ilisimatusarfik, also represent Greenland in the OCT Youth Network in 2026-27.
Read more about them and the network’s other members here.
