The European Union (EU) is considering a mandatory ban on the member states using companies that might pose a security risk in their 5G networks, including China’s Huawei.
The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the decision was taken in response to growing worries in Brussels about certain national governments postponing action on the issue.
Last Friday, at a meeting of EU telecom ministers, Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, noted that, despite Brussels’ recommendations to bar high-risk vendors from technology investments, only a third of member nations had banned Huawei from crucial aspects of the bloc’s 5G communications.
“This is too few. And it exposes the union’s collective security,” Breton said, The Financial Times reported.
The EU resisted pressure from the US on Chinese telcos back in 2020 by stating that member states could either restrict or exclude high-risk 5G vendors like Huawei from key components of their telecoms network.
As guidance fell short of a ban in 2020, the EU could introduce a mandatory ban on companies deemed to present a security risk, should member-states such as Germany continue to delay, the newspaper added.
As per the report, the new rules forcing the ban are unlikely to come before the five-year term of the current European Commission ends. In Germany, officials expressed concerns about the ties between Deutsche Telekom and Huawei. In March, a government source told Reuters that Berlin had been considering a ban on certain components from Huawei and ZTE (another Chinese company) in its telecom networks.
Huawei said it opposed politicizing cyber security evaluation. “Assessing cyber security risks without sticking to technological standards, or excluding specific suppliers from the system without proper technological evaluation, is a violation of the principles of fairness and non-discrimination, and also against the laws and regulations of the European Union and its member states.”
The company said, “No court has ever found that Huawei had engaged in malicious intellectual property theft, or required Huawei to pay damages for infringement on others’ intellectual property.”
NEWS SOURCE: MyIndMakers
IMAGE: REUTERS