Europe is keen on introducing high speed 5G network in the continent but stands undecided and sceptical over the supplies from China. The Chinese technology firm, Huawei is known as the world’s biggest producer of 5G network equipments, selling products at the most competitive prices. The deal with Huawei looks lucrative monetarily but the bloc is suspicious about the cost of security lapse it might have to bear. EU’s doubts stemmed from the allegations of espionage US imposed on the company.

Julian King, the EU’s commissioner in charge of the bloc’s security, said in case of any agreement between the two entities, laws in the countries, which would provide the gear for 5G technology would also be extensively discussed. As per the Commission’s internal report, China’s National Intelligence Law forces that the Chinese ‘organisations and citizens shall, in accordance with the law, support, cooperate with, and collaborate in national intelligence work’.

European Commission is believed to make a formal proposal regarding the same towards the end of this year.

King told reporters, “When we think about the overall security of products and supplies from different sources, we can think of their legal regime. In China, they have a national intelligence law that puts broad requirements on organisations to support and collaborate on national intelligence work and it’s a particular legal legislative framework which is relevant.”

Talking about his meeting with China’s Ambassador to the EU, Zhang Ming, King clarified that EU was not trying to target Huawei’s services because it was Chinese.

King said, “When the Chinese ambassador comes and talks to me about this, I say: Well, actually, it’s not because we’re obsessive about China, we’re trying to develop a risk assessment across this market and if you have suppliers which are major suppliers, then they’re going to be a feature the discussion.”

US banned Chinese telecom giant, accusing the company of undertaking the act of corporate espionage, intellectual property theft and forced technology transfer. After US Intelligence agency reported that Huawei took money from Chinese military and intelligence agencies, other nations grew wary of entering any agreement with it.

Both Huawei and Chinese authorities denied the allegations, calling them baseless. Besides US, Australia and New Zealand also agreed to banning the company’s products and service outrightly. Other nations like Britain have opted to closely monitor Chinese products to ensure that they are secure. Britain’s National Security Council has blocked Huawei from all sensitive parts of the 5G network but provided it with limited access to less critical areas.