Huawei 5G Restriction in Romania To Be Voted in Parliament

This week Romania was in the center of the news when it comes to 5G networks. According to the international publications, Romania has banned Huawei from attending the 5G tender. This is not quite the real truth. We’ll try and explain on short all about it.

The memorandum Romania signed in 2019 in US regarding 5G providers

In August 2019, when the current Romanian president Iohannis met with president Trump, there was also signed a memorandum which obliged Romania to carefully examine and evaluate the 5G vendors. This was hinting at the Chinese giant, Huawei, as the US wanted to ban this vendor from 5G tenders across the world where the US had strategic partnerships. In Europe, the Americans have two main partners who side with the American interests on a regular basis: Poland and Romania.

For Romania the equation is very simple: US are the 5th on the top of the main investors in Romania and the main partner when it comes to military defense.

Critics would say that Poland follows its goals better than Romania. Let’s remember that Poland was officially invited to join the Visa Waiver program in 2019, while Romania still has to have its citizens wait in lines at the American embassy for getting visa when travelling to the United States. But, to cut a long story short, for more information about the difference between Poland and Romania when it comes to the American strategic partnership, please check the analysis in the link.

Now, let’s get back to our subject: 5G memorandum and what steps are taken by Romania to side with the US as agreed. In other words, let’s see how Romania understood that Huawei is the wrong way, as the American Ambassador in Romania wrote on the embassy’s website.

Huawei 5G ban in Romania not definitive, one more step to take

What happened this week, though? The fact is Romanian Government signed-off a bill which enforces the memorandum of understanding provisions. It still has to be approved by the Parliament, allegedly this week.

Though, at the moment, Romanian Government is amid a political crisis, with one of the parties which form the coalition upset because the Romanian PM fired the minister of Health. In such a context, we doubt the Parliament will be summoned this week for voting the bill, but miracles can happen anytime, even in the Romanian politics.

What we know for certain is that on one hand the Romanian president, who signed the memorandum and who is undoubtedly backing and coordinating the bill’s voting process through the governing coalition, wouldn’t have had the bill sent from Government to Parliament if there weren’t proper chances for the bill to be adopted.

In other words, chances are in favor of the bill to be voted and Huawei, but not only Huawei, might be excluded from 5G tenders in Romania starting from this week. On the other hand, because of the coalition crisis in Romania, it is possible for the vote to be postponed.