You must ban Huawei, says the European Union

The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, denounces the slowness with which we secure technological infrastructures: “To date, only ten EU countries have excluded high-risk suppliers”

There are too few European Union countries that have eliminated Chinese telecommunications giants such as Huawei and Ztethe European Commissioner for the Internal Market said yesterday in Brussels, Thierry Breton: “We cannot afford to maintain dependencies that could become weapons against our interests. It would be too great a risk to our common security.” While also announcing a total ban on Chinese components from the Commission’s telecommunications services, Breton came back with extreme harshness on the need to secure networks: “To date, only ten EU countries have excluded high-risk suppliers. We are taking too long, and it is a serious risk”. For weeks there has been talk of a possible mandatory ban that the Commission could impose on European territory. There is a question of dependence on Chinese technology, and another of espionage. In February, the European Commission and Parliament banned employees from downloading the Chinese app TikTok on work phones, and for some time to attend Council meetings involving China you have to leave your smartphone outside the door. Yet there was a time, not so long ago, when members of the Italian government were quick to sing the praises of Chinese telecommunications companies. In February 2019, when the Ministry of Economic Development (today of Made in Italy) was led by the grillino Louis DiMaio, the reassurance was always the same: doing business with China and then, only afterwards, equipping ourselves with the necessary tools to secure ourselves. Four years later, many things have changed. First the recommendations of Copasir, then the intervention of the Draghi government on the new networks of Tim and Vodafone without Chinese technology. But according to a report last year by Strand Consult, 51 percent of the components of the Italian 5G network are Chinese, and the situation is even worse in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. Breton now says: be quick.