\n<\/p>\n
Such a dependency, she said, \u201cwould increase the risk of foreign interference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s interior ministry said in a statement to POLITICO that the contract \u201cdoes not entail any security risk and complies with the levels required in the National Security Scheme.\u201d Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0on Sep. 9 that security services are in control of the data on the servers and that it would not be possible to extract the data.<\/p>\n A Huawei spokesperson said the company \u201cstrongly opposes the remarks\u201d made by Virkkunen. They \u201clack a verified, transparent, and objective technical assessment,\u201d the spokesperson said, arguing that singling out Huawei as a high-risk supplier \u201cwithout legal basis contradicts the principles of free trade.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent years, Brussels and a large group of EU capitals have called for a careful approach to the use of Chinese technology and particularly to Huawei, which is seen as a high-risk vendor under criteria set out in 2020 under a 5G \u201ctoolbox\u201d security exercise.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, the European Commission has estimated that only 10 countries have fully implemented the toolbox; others have done so partially or not at all. The Commission itself has committed to \u201cavoid[ing] exposure of its own corporate communications networks to mobile networks using Huawei and ZTE,\u201d Virkkunen said in Wednesday\u2019s response.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Spanish government more recently canceled a separate contract with Telefonica over the use of Huawei equipment, Reuters reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n This story was updated to add a comment from Huawei. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n