The European Union is considering a mandatory ban on member states using companies that might pose a “security risk” in their 5G networks, including China’s Huawei Technologies, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
The move comes as a response to increasing concern in Brussels about certain national governments delaying action on the matter, the officials told the newspaper. EU and Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In 2020, the EU said member states can either restrict or exclude high-risk 5G vendors such as Huawei from core parts of their telecommunications networks, and resisted pressure back then from Washington for an outright ban on Chinese carriers.
In a meeting last Friday, the EU’s internal market commissioner, Thierry Breton, informed telecoms ministers that only a third of EU countries had implemented Huawei bans in critical areas, the report said.
As guidance fell short of a ban in 2020, EU could introduce a mandatory ban on companies deemed to present a security risk, should member states such as Germany continue to delay, the newspaper added.
Germany has been considering banning certain components from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE in its telecoms networks, a government source said in March, in a potentially significant move to address security concerns. — Akriti Sharma, (c) 2023 Reuters