The EU Commission is calling on the EU countries to better protect their 5G mobile networks against providers they consider risky, such as the Chinese companies Huawei or ZTE. The EU has succeeded in reducing dependencies in other sectors such as the energy sector in record time, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said in Brussels on Thursday. “With 5G it should be no different: we cannot afford to maintain critical dependencies that could become a ‘weapon’ against our interests.”
According to Breton, the decision of some EU countries to limit the influence of Huawei and ZTE on their 5G networks, or even to exclude them altogether, is justified. These represented a much higher risk than other providers. In the future, the EU Commission no longer wants to use any services that use technology from ZTE or Huawei.
Breton called on all EU states and telecom operators to take the necessary measures without delay. The US in particular accuses Huawei of having close ties to the Chinese government and has imposed sanctions on the company. Huawei denies the allegations. In 2020, the EU Commission recommended keeping providers like Huawei out of the core areas of the network.