Energy News
TRADE WARS
EU wants to keep Chinese suppliers out of critical infrastructure

EU wants to keep Chinese suppliers out of critical infrastructure

By Raziye Akkoc
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Jan 20, 2026

The EU is expected on Tuesday to unveil plans to keep "high-risk" Chinese suppliers away from European critical infrastructure, as the bloc ramps up efforts to reduce dependencies on third countries.

Relations between Brussels and Beijing are strained as the European Union has taken an increasingly tough line on trade issues with China.

The EU in particular takes umbrage at what it describes as unfair competition with China, but there are also security concerns -- raised often by Washington.

The European Commission will publish its proposal revising cybersecurity rules in a bid to clamp down on foreign companies seen as posing security risks.

The EU executive in 2023 urged member states to exclude Huawei and ZTE equipment from their mobile networks due to security risks, but now wants to make it a compulsory ban, a European official said.

The rules give national authorities powers to issue restrictions but less than half of EU states have used them to restrict or exclude high-risk vendors.

The United States has long banned Huawei and sought to convince allies to follow suit over fears its products could be used to monitor communications.

Any EU mandatory restrictions could extend to Chinese companies making other products, including solar panels.

The commission may also seek to include "sovereignty" criteria in the scheme certifying the cyber security of cloud services, in a move that would exclude US companies which currently dominate the European market.

France has pushed the issue, but its adoption has stalled because of deep divisions between the 27 member states.

- Revamping telecoms -

The commission will also unveil its proposal on Wednesday for a Digital Networks Act to overhaul Europe's telecoms networks.

The EU wants to bolster its competitiveness and boost investment but critics say that is difficult when key sectors including telecoms and defence are fragmented with different national rules which make it difficult to scale up.

The bigger question is where the money will come from, as Brussels says Europe needs 200 billion euros ($232 billion) to modernise the telecoms network.

In a win for tech giants, a draft document seen by AFP made no mention of "fair share" payments from the world's biggest web companies for the large amounts of bandwidth they use.

Despite being a fervent wish of telecoms firms, the idea was deeply unpopular.

It became even more unlikely after the EU-US tariff deal last year, which the White House said included an EU promise not to adopt fees.

The EU executive will also give member states until 2035 to move off copper telecommunications networks, according to the draft document.

This would mean the industry has more time to switch to faster fibre networks.

Both texts will need to be approved by member states and the EU parliament.

fpo-raz/del/rmb

ZTE

Related Links
Global Trade News

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
TRADE WARS
Men's Fashion Week in Paris: what to watch
Paris, France (AFP) Jan 18, 2026
Men's Fashion Week will kick off in Paris on Tuesday, and from Veronique Nichanian's farewell at Hermes to Jonathan Anderson's second Dior collection, AFP has selected the stand-out moments not to be missed. - Stability and sales - Over six days and across 36 runway shows and 30 presentations, 66 houses are set to unveil their wardrobes for the next Fall/Winter season. After a 2025 marked by sweeping changes in some labels' top positions, this season will be more stable, with many newly app ... read more

TRADE WARS
Understanding ammonia energy's tradeoffs around the world

US to repeal the basis for its climate rules: What to know

Cold winter and AI boom pushed US emissions increase in 2025

France climate goals off track as emissions cuts slow again

TRADE WARS
KRISS process enables large-area solid electrolyte fabrication at lower cost

Perovskite betavoltaic cell sets record efficiency using carbon 14 source

UK facility scales hydrogen recycling of rare earth magnets

Volvo Cars pauses battery factory after fruitless partner search

TRADE WARS
UK nets record offshore wind supply in renewables push

Trump gets wrong country, wrong bird in windmill rant

S.Africa seeks to save birds from wind turbine risks

Vertical wind turbines may soon power UK railways using tunnel airflow

TRADE WARS
Hebrew University team develops flexible color tunable solar window technology

Spacer layout boosts performance of single component organic solar cells

Quantum simulator sheds light on how nature moves energy in systems like photosynthesis and solar conversion

Molecular velcro coating boosts perovskite solar cell durability and efficiency

TRADE WARS
Radioactive zinc shipment in Philippines onshore in 'safe' location

Russia, Ukraine agree 'localised ceasefire' for nuclear plant repairs: IAEA

Coal plant conversion seen boosting China nuclear share to 22 percent by 2060

Bayesian neural net sharpens thorium 232 fission yield data

TRADE WARS
Garden and farm waste targeted as feedstock for new bioplastics

Beer yeast waste could provide scaffold for cultivated meat production

Biochar layer boosts hydrogen rich gas yields from corn straw

Carbon monoxide enables rapid atomic scale control for fuel cell catalysts

TRADE WARS
Oil prices drop 3% after Trump comments on Iran

Chinese villagers struggle for heat as gas subsidies fade

China: the indispensable partner of Maduro's Venezuela

Polymer nanoparticles drive platinum free solar hydrogen

TRADE WARS
Trump pulls US out of key climate treaty, deepening global pullback

German emissions cuts slow, North Sea has warmest year on record

How Climate Policies that Incentivize and Penalize Can Drive the Clean Energy Transition

Regional temperature records broken across the world in 2025

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.