This dependency, she noted, “would heighten the risk of foreign interference.”
Spain’s interior ministry informed POLITICO that the contract “poses no security risk and meets the required levels within the National Security Scheme.” Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska stated on September 9 that security services manage the data on the servers and that extraction of the data would not be possible.
Huawei has not yet responded to a request for comment.
In recent years, both Brussels and many EU capitals have advocated for careful consideration in the use of Chinese technology, especially Huawei, which has been designated a high-risk vendor according to 2020 criteria from a 5G “toolbox” security initiative.
The European Commission has assessed that only 10 countries have fully implemented the toolbox, with other countries implementing it partially or not at all. The Commission has itself pledged to “avoid exposure of its own corporate communications networks to mobile networks using Huawei and ZTE,” Virkkunen stated in Wednesday’s response.
Recently, the Spanish government also canceled a separate contract with Telefonica due to the use of Huawei equipment, as reported by Reuters.
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