Isla meets with Huawei amid controversy over the Interior Ministry's wiretapping contract

BarcelonaThe President of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), Salvador Illa, met this Sunday morning with the Chinese company Huawei. Sources within the Catalan government assure that it was an "institutional and courtesy" visit. The meeting took place amidst a controversy over the contract that the Ministry of the Interior awarded to the Chinese multinational to manage the storage of wiretaps ordered by judges and prosecutors.

The Ministry of the Interior awarded a contract for the storage of wiretaps ordered by judges and prosecutors to Huawei, valued at €12.3 million. As a result of this contract, Brussels sent a warning to the Spanish government this past Tuesday. for contracts with the Chinese technology company.

In mid-March, Belgian police authorities raided the company's Brussels headquarters due to a possible corruption case in the European Parliament. The Belgian prosecutor's office pointed to possible bribes to current and former MEPs. Following the case, the European Parliament banned entry to company representatives and the European Commission ordered the commissioners' offices and all their departments to immediately suspend contacts and meetings with Huawei until further notice.

For its part, the Spanish government has stated that there is no risk of a leak and argues that the storage system does not allow information to be included or extracted from the system.

Criticism in Spain from the US

Likewise, members of the U.S. Senate and House intelligence committees have asked the U.S. government to review the exchange of classified information with Spain to ensure there is no information leak in China.