Meet the board: Erik Carter (Radikal Ungdom)

Here is your shot at getting to know the board of the NCF even better! Here, learn more about the president of the NCF, Erik Carter from Radikal Ungdom!

Where are you from?

I’m originally born in South Africa, but I grew up in Denmark on the island of Lolland. Lolland is often referred to as ‘Udkantsdanmark’, a pretty negative term for something that is in the outskirts of Denmark. When I tell my Norwegian, Swedish or Finnish friends that the provincial Denmark is an 1,5-hour drive from our capital, they laugh in my face. I agree, Denmark is ridiculously small if we lift our faces over the Nordic borders. I currently live in Copenhagen, so my family in Lolland is never far away!

What do you do in your everyday life?

I am currently finishing my bachelor in political science at the University of Copenhagen. I also work for Microsoft in Denmark, where I focus on the educational sector and bringing technology that promotes learning into classrooms. I’m also a scout leader, which I really enjoy because it makes a significant difference for a lot of young people and children when they have people to look up to – on more than a physical level (I’m 191 cm).

Why are you passionate about Nordic politics?

I love Nordic politics because we have such a huge potential for cooperating. We have similar economies, similar languages, similar cultures and a similar approach to our democracies and political systems. This should make cooperation very fruitful and quite easy to facilitate. It’s unfortunately not the case as of today, where the Nordic Council does not play the active role it should. To me, having gone to many sessions so far, it seems like the politicians there only bring Nordic politics up during these sessions, except a few that really champion Nordic politics. To me, Nordic cooperation should be a vital part of everyday life as a politician in all our countries. We need to ask ourselves: “if this could work in Sweden, why would it not work here?”.

What is your favorite Nordic city and why?

I simply love Helsinki in Finland and Trondheim in Norway. I can’t choose. Helsinki has an urban vibe, but it’s really relaxed, people are chilled out and frankly a bit weird in the most fantastic way. Trondheim on the other hand is just next to so much beautiful nature, is really cozy and Norwegian…. That language makes my heart melt!

What is your favorite Nordic word?

Jättekippis. A fusion between the Swedish ‘jätte’ which means huge and the Finnish ‘kippis’ which means cheers – huge cheers. It’s a testament to Nordic cooperation on so many levels. It’s a celebration. Find #jättekippis on Instagram if you don’t know what I mean. It’s not a real word, but YOLO.

Where is the Nordic cooperation in 50 years?

I hope it’s much more integrated than today. Every kid at school knows someone of their own age in another Nordic country, they understand each other when they speak in their native language and they are most of all curious about exploring, living and working in all the Nordic countries. I want every person to feel at home everywhere in the Nordic countries. I think one way of securing that is by treating all Nordic citizens equally in whatever country they live in – which is why I hope that we have a common Nordic citizenship in 50 years, which we have previously called for in the NCF.

Stay tuned for more updates about the board!

Read more about the Nordic citizenship here: http://mittinorden.com/blog/nordisk-medborgerskab

 

Help us improve our political programme!

In the NCF, we're constantly following the political debates throughout the Nordic countries. We're following the work of the Nordic Council (Nordisk Råd) and the Nordic Youth Council (Ungdomens Nordiska Råd) where we submit resolutions.

Our platform for being active in these debates is our ideology and our political programme. These documents outline our political core and our concrete political ambitions in the Nordic countries across several areas. But they're not perfect. And we always want to become sharper and clearer in the debates where it matters most.

This is where you and your organization come in. During our Top Meeting in october, we will be discussing and revising our political programme.

We'd like to receive your feedback and comments before the 11th September 2015.

The old programme can still be found here. We ask you to provide your comments to the draft version below. You can download it and add documents directly in the file. Send your comments to your organizations member of the board in the NCF. 

We look forward to discussing our political programme with you!

The board of the NCF