The European Commission considered on Thursday June 15 that the Chinese suppliers of telecommunications equipment Huawei and ZTE pose a risk to the security of the EU and announced that it would stop contracting mobile phone services based on the equipment of these companies.
Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton called on the 27 member countries and telecom operators to exclude such equipment from their mobile networks.
“We cannot afford to maintain facilities that could become weapons against our interests. It would be too great a risk to our common security,” he added.
“Materially higher risks”
The EU executive said in a statement that Huawei and ZTE “pose materially higher risks than other 5G providers.” The Commission added that it would “take the necessary security measures not to acquire new connectivity services based on the equipment of these providers.”
Europe is under pressure from the United States to exclude these Chinese companies accused of enabling espionage activities on behalf of Beijing. Washington has already banned the sale of equipment from five Chinese suppliers, including Huawei and ZTE.
Bans on the supply of 5G equipment have also been taken in the UK and Canada, but European countries are divided on the approach to take.
Protect against espionage or sabotage
In a “toolbox” adopted in January 2020, Member States and the Commission made recommendations aimed at protecting 5G networks in the EU from the risk of espionage or sabotage.
But these measures do not have binding legal force and high-risk suppliers are not named. The latter are defined as manufacturers of equipment that may be subject to interference from a third country, for example due to the existence of a close link with the government of this country or the legislation of the country, in particular when no agreement has been concluded of data protection. concluded with the EU.
Three years later, 24 of the 27 EU Member States have transposed the Toolkit recommendations into their national law. “But to date, only ten of them have used these prerogatives to restrict or exclude high-risk providers. This is too slow and poses a significant security risk and exposes the collective security of the Union”, estimated Thierry Breton.
Source: BFM TV
