In brief: Few organizations have been hit with as many sanctions as Huawei, but the Chinese giant could soon face yet another restriction. The EU is considering a mandatory ban on all its member states from using companies that present a security risk for their 5G networks, and that includes Huawei.
It was back in 2019 when Donald Trump declared a national emergency that effectively banned US companies from buying and using telecoms equipment from "foreign adversaries." Following the announcement of the order, the Commerce Department revealed that Huawei and 70 affiliates had been added to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List.
Other countries followed suit, but only a third of EU nations have banned Huawei from their 5G communications networks, despite recommendations from the EU Commission for certification requirements, diversification of suppliers, and not to use high-risk companies for critical parts of the infrastructure.
The Commission never brought in an outright ban on Huawei, but the Financial Times reports that one could be introduced on the firm and other companies deemed to be high-risk if member states such as Germany continue to delay implementing the guidelines.
EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton said that a third of the bloc banning Huawei from their 5G communications networks is too few and exposes the union's collective security.
The EU Commission's executive arm is set to publish a second progress report on how member nations are implementing its recommendations in the coming weeks.
If new rules are introduced that force all EU countries to ban Huawei and other high-risk companies, they're unlikely to arrive before next year, which is when the five-year term of the current European Commission ends.
While Germany is one of the countries that hasn't outright banned Huawei from its telecoms network, a government source told Reuters that it is considering the move to address security concerns. Meanwhile, Portugal is preparing to ban Huawei from some 5G equipment.
The most recent headlines made by Huawei came back in April when storage giant Seagate was fined $300 million by the United States Department of Commerce for selling $1.1 billion worth of disk drives to the sanctioned Chinese firm.
Center image: European Parliament
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