The Chinese manufacturer of telecommunications equipment Huawei judged, on Friday, June 16, as “discriminatory” the fact of being classified as a risk provider by the European Commission, which recommended excluding it from European mobile networks.
“The introduction of restrictions or exclusions based on discriminatory judgments poses significant economic and social risks. It could hamper innovation and distort the European market,” Huawei said in a statement.
The European Commission considered on Thursday June 15 that Chinese telecommunications equipment providers Huawei and ZTE posed a security risk to the EU and announced that it would no longer subscribe to these companies’ hardware-based mobile phone services.
The Internal Market Commissioner, Thierry Breton, asked the 27 member countries and telecom operators to exclude this equipment from their mobile networks.
“We cannot afford to maintain units that could become weapons against our interests. It would be too great a risk to our common security,” he told a news conference in Brussels.
“Against free trade”
“Publicly labeling a company as a ‘high risk supplier’ without a legal basis goes against the principles of free trade. This discriminatory characterization (…) should never be applied without due process and without a due hearing,” the company responded. .
Huawei explains that it has opened a “Cybersecurity Transparency Center” in Brussels, open to customers and independent testing organizations. “They are invited to perform impartial security tests and verifications,” says the equipment manufacturer.
Europe is under pressure from the United States to exclude Huawei accused of enabling espionage activities on behalf of Beijing. Washington has already banned the sale of the group’s equipment.
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 despite the Commission’s recommendation.
Source: BFM TV
