The European Commission’s proposals released on Tuesday about security in EU 5G networks, clearly aimed at limiting Huawei’s involvement, comprised the usual attempts to exhort and co-ordinate member states rather than compel them to act with actual legislation.
To a large extent this was born of necessity: national security is a competency of member states. However, the lack of centralising initiative was not for want of imagination by commission officials, who combed through existing legislation and member state decisions trying to find a way to impose a harmonised approach across the EU.
It is a pattern repeated in a variety of policy areas associated with trade, including government procurement and the screening of foreign direct investment for threats to national security. The rise of China has created a debate about whether an EU with devolved authority can effectively engage with a highly centralised rising economic and political superpower. But shifting power to EU-wide institutions, trampling on national autonomy, is frequently a painful process.