The European Commission warned on Thursday (June 15) that Chinese telecom giants Huwaei and ZTE pose a risk to the European Union’s security. It announced that it will no longer use services that rely on the companies.
“The commission considers that Huawei and ZTE represent in fact materially higher risks than other 5G suppliers,” the EU’s executive arm said in a statement.
The European Commission added that it “will take relevant security measures so as not to procure new connectivity services that rely on equipment from those suppliers”.
Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market Commissioner appealed 27-member states and telecom operators to exclude equipments from these companies from their mobile networks.
“We cannot afford to maintain critical dependencies that could become a ‘weapon’ against our interests. That would be too critical a vulnerability and too serious a risk to our common security,” Breton said during a press conference in Brussels.
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Some 24 EU member states have adopted the rules or are laying down the groundwork to give national authorities powers to issue restrictions, the commission said.
Breton however said that only 10 member had used the rules to restrict or exclude high-risk vendors. He did not name the countries.
“This is too slow, and it poses a major security risk and exposes the union’s collective security, since it creates a major dependency for the EU and serious vulnerabilities,” he said.
The move has come three years after European Commission introduced strict 5G rules. The rules however, did not include an outright ban on any particular supplier and it did not name Huawei.
Thursday’s announcement therefore marks a departure for the bloc and represents the EU’s increasingly tougher line on China, while maintaining ties with Beijing.
US pressure
The United States has put pressure on Europe to exclude the companies over national security concerns and last year issued a ban on the import or sale of communications equipment from Chinese companies including Huawei and ZTE.
Washington has previously expressed fears that Huawei equipment could be compromised by Chinese intelligence.
Britain has also blocked Huawei’s involvement in the roll-out of its 5G telecoms network.
(With inputs from agencies)
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