The European Union plans to phase out components and equipment from high-risk suppliers in critical sectors, according to a draft proposal released by the European Commission yesterday, a move expected to affect Huawei and other Chinese tech companies.
The measures, set out in revisions to the EU’s Cybersecurity Act, follow an increase in cyber and ransomware attacks and growing worries over foreign interference, espionage and Europe’s dependence on third-country technology suppliers.
The Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive, did not name any company nor country.
Europe, however, has been hardening its stance on the use of Chinese equipment, with Germany, for example, recently appointing an expert commission to rethink trade policy towards Beijing and banning the use of Chinese components from future 6G networks.
The US banned approvals of new telecommunications equipment from Huawei and ZTE in 2022 and has encouraged Europe to do the same.
“With the new Cybersecurity Package, we will have the means in place to better protect our critical (information and communications technology) supply chains but also to combat cyber attacks decisively,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement.
China’s foreign ministry, responding to an earlier report on the plans, called restricting Chinese firms without legal basis “naked protectionism” and urged the EU to provide a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies.
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