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Whilst member countries across the European Union are facing the possibility of being forced to ban companies deemed a security risk from their 5G networks, elsewhere the company most impacted by the action, Huawei, is being funded by the EU to conduct research into future technologies.
A report in todays Financial Times reveals that Huawei is receiving funding from the EU totalling around €3.89 million as part of the Horizon Europe research programme, which covers areas including 6G, AI and cloud computing.
Horizon Europe is the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme, which last week saw the European Commission proposing that it should benefit from €12.8 billion funding in the 2024 EU budget. This is out of a total proposal of €13.6 billion on research and innovation funding in 2024.
The largest proportion of Horizon Europe money is dedicated to what are classed as collaborative projects with Huawei reportedly providing AI platforms and infrastructure equipment.
The EU considers that a number of countries, and in particular Germany, have been laggards when it comes to curbing use of “high risk” vendors who may prevent a security risk. It has been confirmed by a European Commission spokesperson that they will shortly present their second 5G toolbox review and it is expected that a number of countries, and possibly operators, will be named when the report is issued.
Analyst Paolo Pescatore commented that any toughening of Germany’s stance “would be the nail in the coffin for Huawei in Europe”.
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