European Commission officials are making plans for measures that would force countries in the EU to strip their national telecoms networks of Chinese equipment, according to a plan first reported by Bloomberg, citing people familiar with it.
The action would formalize the bloc’s 5G Toolbox approach, which was introduced as a nonbinding toolkit, and give Brussels the leverage to selectively launch infringement procedures and financial penalties on member states that flout such risk-based restrictions for “high-risk” vendors. It also suggests a wider rebalancing of Europe’s relationship with China on critical infrastructure.
What the Proposed EU Law Would Change for 5G Networks
One set of draft text would turn the current security guidance into requirements for member states on 5G Radio Access Networks, core network functions and certain components of fixed fiber projects linked to public funding. The Commission has also considered restricting the use of high-risk vendors in EU-funded broadband builds to prevent the long-term risk from being baked into networks.
Individual countries would retain the right to carry out their own risk assessments, but the result would be a binding regime: phased removal from sensitive elements of networks and strict procurement rules for future deployments. Transition timeframes, non-critical exceptions and financial support arrangements are likely to be the main topics for discussions with capitals.
Security rationale and the EU’s 5G security toolbox
The EU’s 5G Toolbox, released as a cohesive risk template, recommended checks on high-risk vendors’ governance, legal requirements to foreign governments and transparency of their supply chain. A progress review by the Commission later raised a caution flag on uneven implementation across the bloc, with some countries acting decisively and others dragging their feet in imposing curbs despite what it said was a shared risk picture.
Some member states have already taken action. Germany’s interior ministry has outlined plans to remove what it sees as the most critical component of Chinese kit in core 5G networks and limit it at the radio layers with a glide path that starts in mid-decade. Sweden’s regulator maintained a ban on Huawei and ZTE in 5G after court battles. Finland has indicated plans to expand restrictions more widely. The United Kingdom, not a member of the EU, told operators to remove Huawei from 5G by 2027. The United States has for a long time pushed allies to curtail Chinese gear over espionage and sabotage fears. Huawei and ZTE have repeatedly denied any impropriety.
Cost and network impact for European telecom operators
The challenge in practice is the amount of equipment that has to be replaced, and how quickly. Huawei has lost share over the years in Western Europe where Ericsson and Nokia are very strong; some Central and Eastern European markets still have significant legacy installs. Industry analysts with Dell’Oro Group believe Huawei is still a leading RAN vendor globally, but its European market share has been declining as new awards have gone to non-Chinese vendors.
Rip-and-replace programs are expensive. A UK government estimate last year suggested taking out Huawei from 5G networks could cost carriers in the low billions of pounds and delay rollouts. The Federal Communications Commission reported a multibillion-dollar shortfall in the United States for its reimbursement program for small, rural carriers switching away from Chinese gear. European operators have cautioned that tight deadlines could put pressure on supply lines, workforce numbers for swap-outs and service continuity.
Alternatives exist, but scale matters. Ericsson and Nokia control the installed base in Europe; Samsung is growing selectively. Open RAN is gaining some momentum—Vodafone, Telefónica, and Deutsche Telekom have announced deployments—but urban-scale swaps still need careful planning to meet performance and energy efficiency targets.
Strategic Autonomy and the Trade Fallout
An EU binding rule would reinforce the bloc’s push for strategic autonomy — controlling key technologies, cutting down single-provider dependencies and interoperability of security standards across borders. It would come at a time the bloc is facing an increasingly fraught trade backdrop, which includes EU anti-subsidy probes into other industries and growing scrutiny of foreign participation in strategic projects.
Beijing is likely to bristle, complaining that such restrictions are discriminatory. European officials argue the framework is vendor-agnostic and risk-based, based on legal and technical criteria. The Commission has an interest in avoiding fragmentation to ensure that the baseline of security for state aid, recovery funds and cross-border infrastructure programmes is coherent.
What to watch next in the EU’s proposed telecom law
Key milestones include the presentation by the Commission of a legal draft, internal screening by the College of Commissioners and negotiations with member states and the Parliament if a directive or regulation is preferred. How disruptive the transition becomes will depend on national inventories of high-risk vendor equipment, timelines set by national regulators for its phased removal and plans to finance the deployment order — maybe even with EU funds aimed at rural or small-scale operators.
The policy will be assessed against the EU’s Digital Decade targets: to provide 5G coverage in all populated areas and ensure that 100% of households are covered by gigabit-capable fixed networks by 2030. The test for Brussels is whether it can increase security without sacrificing connectivity goals; that calculus will be tallied in contracts signed, base stations swapped — and the staying power of Europe’s next-generation networks.
