The EU is considering a sweeping ban on Huawei’s telecommunications infrastructure in its countries’ 5G networks.
This comes as the EU raises concerns that some national governments aren’t taking the security risks of Huawei’s 5G gear seriously, despite issuing recommendations to avoid parts from high-risk vendors.
Just a third of EU countries have banned Huawei from its 5G network builds. Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have issued bans, while giants like Germany and Portugal are yet to crack down.
“This is too few,” declared Thierry Breton, EU internal market commissioner, in a memo last week.
“And it exposes the union’s collective security.”
Not surprisingly, Huawei have hit out against the prospect of such a ban.
“Assessing cybersecurity 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,” Huawei 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.”