EU will not recommend banning Huawei

The EU will unveil a set of recommended measures that are “naturally strict and vigilant” at the end of January, European Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton said at a news conference in Paris on Monday.

No companies will be explicitly excluded in the EU’s recommendations, he said. US officials have criss-crossed Europe over the past year, urging the EU and its members to exclude the Chinese company from their mobile networks. Washington argues Huawei poses a national security risk, while Huawei and Chinese officials deny the accusations.

The bloc has sought to coordinate the member states’ approach on 5G, in an effort to avoid potential US or Chinese retaliation targeting any individual European country.

Last month, EU countries agreed to use only trustworthy parties for infrastructure that is critical to national security, and pledged to consider the laws of a supplier’s home country before buying their products.

The EU is limited in what it can tell its member states to do, however. Any decisions to ban companies for national security reasons rest with member states, and many operators in various European countries have already struck deals with Huawei on 5G.

On Tuesday, the U.K. government says it will allow telecom giant Huawei a “limited role” in building its new 5G data network, despite U.S. pressure to cut the Chinese company out of development plans.

South China Morning Post