EU ignores US calls for blanket ban on Huawei in Europe as Chinese company’s 5G expertise helps its cause

Although the US has been pressuring its allies hard to boycott telecoms services and networking gear from China’s Huawei Technologies, citing national security concerns, Europe has been reluctant to comply so far.

Huawei competes against the likes of Cisco, Ericsson and Nokia from the West for billions of dollars worth of potential next-generation network contracts. The world’s largest network gear maker currently gets almost half of its more than US$100 billion in annual revenue from overseas markets and has an estimated 30 per cent share of Europe.

The European Commission on Tuesday ignored US calls for a blanket ban on Chinese tech supplier Huawei as it announced a series of cybersecurity recommendations for next-generation mobile networks. While acknowledging US concerns, the commission nevertheless urged member states to assess cyber threats to 5G infrastructure in their national markets.

That information should then be shared among EU countries as part of a coordinated effort to develop a “toolbox of mitigating measures” and minimum common standards for 5G network security by the end of the year, the EU’s executive branch said. Huawei said in a statement it welcomed the commission’s “objective and proportionate” recommendations.

European reluctance to fall into line with US advice may also be down to the fact that Huawei has established a reputation for providing high-quality, cost-effective technology and that banning their 5G network gear at this point could risk future economic prospects.

The new technology will be essential to ushering in a new era of ultra-fast, high capacity, mobile networks that can power commercial internet of things applications and AI-enabled infrastructure, such as smart manufacturing and autonomous driving. No country will want to have a disadvantage in a key area of the new internet economy.