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Sources: Earlier this year, #Huawei registered interest in providing financial sponsorship to the upcoming Slovenian Presidency of the EU....1/10
As is customary for commercial 'partnerships' with EU presidencies (which have in the past been controversial in themselves), a call had been put out by the Slovenian government. Huawei missed the call but reached out directly for talks with the government in Ljubljana... 2/10
A meeting was then held between representatives of the Slovenian Government and Huawei to discuss the company's potential 'partnership' with Slovenia's EU Presidency, which starts in July this year. 3/10
However, sources tell me that the company was informed of the 'conditions' for application as a partner, and then decided not to follow up on their interests in supporting the Slovenian Presidency... 4/10
The partnership would have been disingenuous, to say the least, bearing in mind that just a few months ago, the Slovenian government signed a pact with the US that would effectively keep Huawei out from the country's 5G rollout...see @laurenscerulus 5/10 https://www.politico.eu/article/us-adds-slovenia-to-its-anti-huawei-friendship-group/
But the Slovenian government would have had to contend with even more difficult questions, due to the Presidency's priorities for the second half of 2021, which are gradually becoming clearer. At the top of the list: resilience. A close second: cybersecurity. 6/10
I was informed by Slovenian sources that the Presidency will hone in on strengthening the cyber resilience of critical infrastructure in the event of a possible large-scale cyberattack & will also focus on the NIS Directive Review... 7/10
& just last week, the Slovenians gave a broader insight into this, as part of a joint letter from Foreign Minister @AnzeLog and Portuguese counterpart Augusto Santos Silva 8/10 https://www.gov.si/en/news/2021-04-19-joint-letter-of-slovenian-and-portuguese-foreign-ministers/
For the Slovenians, it's not farfetched to imagine the hypocrisy in partnering with a firm still under the cybersecurity spotlight as the Presidency plots a prioritization of cyber policy...9/10
Sources keen to make clear however that the company wasn't 'turned down' by the gov per se, but that Huawei made the decision not to participate in the EU presidency partnership. Although, it may not have been a great look for the Slovenians, in light of all of the above...10/10
