Norway's controversial decision to approve commercial deep-sea mining in its waters has highlighted a left-right rift in the European Parliament. #EuropeNews
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    The Nordic country - not among the EU’s 27 member states - became the first in the world to approve seabed exploitation on January 9, when its parliament voted in favour of allowing mining companies to scour 281,000 square km of its waters, an area almost the size of Italy.

    With world powers looking to overcome severe shortages in current supply chains, mining the ocean bed is becoming a strategically and commercially attractive prospect for states looking to get ahead in the geopolitical race for raw materials.

    But the European Commission and Parliament are leading calls for an international moratorium on deep-sea mining until scientific gaps are filled, citing environmental concerns including damage to marine life and the disruption of fishing stocks.

    Right-leaning MEPs accused their left-leaning counterparts of hypocrisy for opposing efforts by a democratic neighbour to scale up the availability of raw materials while the bloc still relies on non-democratic states for its supply.

    The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where child labour, human rights violations and corruption are widely documented, is one of the African countries with whom the bloc has signed a strategic partnership.

    Wojciechowski told lawmakers the Commission was “very concerned” by Norway’s decision as it potentially breached its obligations under the United Nations High Seas Treaty, the Paris Agreement and the OSPAR Convention on the protection of the marine environment in the North-East Atlantic.

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