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The United States is pressuring European countries not to use Huawei equipment in next-generation 5G networks, saying the Chinese company's products pose a security risk.
Huawei repeatedly denied the charges and called on the Trump government to provide evidence to support his claims.
The European Commission said on Tuesday that EU Member States were responsible for making their own security decisions, but asked them to complete the 5G risk assessments by the end of the month. of June.
Countries will also carry out a broader security review by the end of December, which will include measures to protect 5G networks at EU level.
Huawei is the world's leading supplier of telecommunication equipment and its market share in Europe is estimated between 35% and 40%. The EU announcement is a setback for US officials who have asked the European allies to take a much tougher stance towards Huawei.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explained the costs explicitly during a trip to Europe last month, when he warned his allies that the use of equipment Huawei made "their partnership with the United States" more difficult.
Vice President Mike Pence issued similar warnings, and the US ambassador to Germany threatened to restrict Berlin access to US intelligence if Huawei products were used in its 5G networks.
Yet Europe seems to follow its own path on this sensitive issue.
"We need to do [the review] For his part, European Commissioner Julian King told reporters: "This is not because someone else has suggested that we should do it, or because we are responding to measures taken elsewhere ".
Huawei's founder, Ren Zhengfei, said earlier in March that the US government's campaign against his company was likely to damage the US's international reputation.
"If this American administration is still fiercely treating other countries, companies or individuals, nobody would dare to invest in the United States," he told CNN.
The company recently took the strongest action against US pressure: it filed a lawsuit against the US government to prohibit federal agencies from using Huawei products.
Ren says the US attempts to block Huawei from other Western countries are not a big deal.
"If they do not buy from us, we sell to others," he told CNN. "We can reduce the size a bit, we are not a publicly traded company, so we do not have to worry about the decline in profits that would lead to the collapse of stock prices."
Europe's approach to the 5G issue does not mean that security officials are not paying attention. The European Union will set standards for equipment and identify "potentially unsecured" products or suppliers.
"We have specific problems with some producers, so everyone knows that I am talking about China and Huawei," Vice President of the European Commission Andrus Ansip told reporters.
"Should we be worried about that, or not? I think we need to worry about that."
Huawei praised the "objective and proportionate" approach adopted by the European Commission, adding that it understands the concerns of cybersecurity with regard to cybersecurity.
"We are firmly committed to continuing to work with all regulators and partners to make the deployment of 5G in Europe a success," said Abraham Liu, Vice President of Huawei for Europe.
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