FT: EU wants to ban Chinese equipment in critical infrastructure

The EU wants to remove Chinese equipment from critical infrastructure, reports Financial Times.

The Financial Times reports that the planned cybersecurity regulation would prohibit all EU countries from using high-risk suppliers in critical infrastructure. In practice, this would mean that EU countries would not be allowed to use the technology of Chinese companies in, for example, telecommunications networks and solar energy systems.

The EU has previously urged member states not to use high-risk suppliers in the procurement of critical infrastructure, but the calls have not affected the operations of all member states. The Financial Times reports that, for example, Spain signed a 12 million euro procurement contract with a Chinese company last summer Huawei’s with. The procurement concerned the equipment of wiretapping devices for law enforcement and intelligence services.

“Fragmented national solutions have proven insufficient for market-wide trust and coordination,” states the draft cybersecurity regulation obtained by the Financial Times.

Removing Chinese technology from critical infrastructure would take time. Insider sources tell the Financial Times that the timeline for removing the technology is still unclear and may vary from industry to industry. The timeline for applying the regulation could be stricter, for example, in the case of very critical infrastructure.

The Commission is scheduled to present a proposal for a cybersecurity regulation on Tuesday.