European Commission validates decision of ten Member States to exclude Huawei and ZTE from their 5G networks and is preparing to follow suit

On Thursday 15 June, the EU Member States unanimously adopted the second report on the implementation of the security toolbox for 5G technology. On the basis of this report, the European Commission has deemed the decisions taken by ten countries to restrict or completely exclude Chinese telecoms equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE from their 5G networks to be in line with this toolbox.

The provisions of the toolbox, adopted in January 2020 (see EUROPE 12414/7), recommended, among other things, restricting or prohibiting the use of equipment in the central and access parts of networks to entities considered to be ‘high-risk suppliers’, due to their being subject to “highly intrusive third-country national intelligence and data security laws”.

So far, ten Member States have made such a decision. Others are expected to follow. Discussions on this subject were held last week in Luxembourg, according to the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.

Twenty-four Member States have adopted or are preparing legislation giving national authorities the power to assess suppliers and issue restrictions. And three of them are currently working on implementing relevant national legislation.

“We will continue to work with determination with those Member States that are lagging behind and with telecoms operators”, said Mr Breton.

This decision will not stop at the Member States. “The Commission will apply the principles of the 5G ‘toolbox’ to its own telecoms services markets, to avoid exposure to Huawei and ZTE”, said Commissioner for the Internal Market.

In practice, the Commission said, this should mean asking suppliers to terminate, not renew and not sign new contracts with Huawei and ZTE for all Commission premises throughout the EU, as well as for EU agencies, bodies and representations.

This decision will be implemented “as quickly as possible”, explained Thierry Breton. “We have been able to reduce or eliminate our dependencies in other sectors such as energy in record time, when many thought it was impossible. The situation with 5G should be no different: we cannot afford to maintain critical dependencies that could become a ‘weapon’ against our interests. This would be too critical a vulnerability and too serious a risk for our common security”, he concluded.

See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/7il (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)