Ljubljana - The National Assembly passed on Wednesday an opposition-sponsored bill on electronic communications, after it was heavily amended to tone down provisions that were aimed at preventing Chinese provider Huawei from selling gear to Slovenian telcos, and provisions seen as undermining the independence of the market regulator.

The Democrats (SDS) had filed to parliament practically the same bill the previous, SDS-led government had filed twice during its term in office, only to see it turned down due concerns by the then centre-left opposition about the independence of the regulator and provisions seen as barring "high-risks providers" such as Huawei from the market.

During the course of committee proceedings, more than 70 of a total of more than 320 articles of the bill were amended to address these concerns.

These amendments changed the provisions on additional security requirements for operators providing mobile networks to critical infrastructure managers.

They prohibit the use of equipment that could threaten national security, while the original bill wanted to ban certain "high-risk providers" from the market.

The amendments also concern the technological features of networks, market analyses carried out at the request of operators, the reasons for the dismissal of the regulator's director, and the geographical review of the reach of broadband networks.

Another change says that public funds can be used not only for building high-capacity networks but also to promote connectivity in areas where infrastructure is already in place.

The SDS voiced objections to the amendments as it argued during the parliamentary debate yesterday that this opened Slovenian telecommunications to interference by China.

"While everyone else is making demands as to who can or cannot perform certain services in critical infrastructure, we are loosening these requirements," said SDS MP Žan Mahnič.

He accused the coalition of yielding to pressure exerted by the Chinese embassy and the telecoms provider Telemach, which uses Huawei gear, as he noted that the Chinese state was in control of Huawei.

According to Mahnič, nobody wanted to limit Huawei, Telemach or any other operator from participating freely in the market, the restrictions were simply designed to "lift critical-infrastructure criteria to the level becoming of national security".

The SDS also pointed out that the bill in effect negates an agreement on the security of 5G networks signed with the US during the previous government.

"This is yet another reason why nobody will take us seriously in this field," Mahnič said.

The government, on the other hand, praised the new law as a long overdue transposition of several key EU directives given that delay is already costing Slovenia hundreds of thousands of euros in fines.

Digital Transformation Minister Emilija Stojmenova Duh dismissed today the SDS's concerns about the elimination of provisions that targeted Huawei.

"This is not true. The original bill was very discriminatory because it did not take into account whether there were indeed problems in the security of communications services," she said.

The act was passed in a 74:1 vote as one SDS MP voted against and the rest abstained.