No company arouses more suspicions in Brussels what Huawei. Since 2020, the European Commission insists on accusing the Chinese giant of telecommunications of posing a “high risk” for the cybersecurity and in asking the 27 to exclude their technology of his talk about 5G. Some countries have done it. However, Spain leads the opposition to recommendations that could soon become an obligation that would strain already complex relations with China.
Caught in a trade and technology war between USA and the giant of Asia, the European Union He tries to swing to find his place. However, the different national interests that reside in the community club make consensus difficult. This explains the internal division around the controversy with Huawei, which is accused of being a Trojan horse at the service of the regime. Xi Jinping. The company has repeatedly denied that characterization.
Now, the community Executive chaired by Ursula von der Leyen seeks to seal that wound with a revision of the Cybersecurity Law to include the risks of influence from foreign nations that would put Beijing hit the target and would open the door for the Commission’s warnings to be legally binding throughout the UE.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen. / Archive
Opposition to the veto
No major European country currently exhibits greater harmony with China than Spain. The Government of Pedro Sanchez has intensified its rapprochement with Beijing, increasingly opening the doors of its country to investment China. Currently, the country has two public contracts that, indirectly, include material from the signing of Szhenzenone of them in Catalonia. A third, of 10 million euros and awarded to Telefónicawas revoked last summer due to “criteria of Spanish sovereignty.”
Spain is not the only country that advocates that the Member States be the ones to decide on their infrastructure and whether a supplier like Huawei or the Chinese company ZTE present risks. According to Bloomberg, Germany co-leads this opposition to Brussels’ intentions despite the fact that there are disagreements within the coalition led by the chancellor Friedrich Merz. Still, Berlin agreed in 2024 to exclude critical components of both brands from the core of its 5G networks before the end of the year and from other access and transport networks before the end of 2029.
Other Member States are ignoring the Commission’s recommendations: only 13 of the 27 have taken action in this regard, according to community sources cited by South China Morning Post. Among them, Hungary. This refusal may be due to various reasons, including economic ones. And, to replace Huawei components, manufacturing companies mobile phone They will have to allocate an investment of between 3,400 and 4,300 million euros over the next three years, according to Brussels calculations.
Avail of vetoes
Some countries have taken explicit measures to ban the use of Huawei technology. It is the case of Swedenalready in 2020, or Romania y Estoniawhich introduced changes to their national legislation in 2021. Others such as France, Lithuania o Portugal They applied less direct restrictions that can produce the same effect, establishing licenses or conditions that, in practice, force the progressive withdrawal of the Chinese firm’s components. Italia has not established a general ban, but reserves the right to veto on a case-by-case basis. Finland It intends to soon expand the reduced veto it adopted five years ago.
Supporters of a blanket ban have reason for optimism. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in March that the Commission can bypass member states to adopt that prohibition without the need to compensate telecommunications operators for the cost of replacing Huawei equipment.
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