> Isn’t that the cost of doing business in the EU?
No, it's not. If you represent a business there is an official way to express your stance and lobby for your cause but bribing MEPs is a criminal offence (both for the perpetrator and those who receive personal benefits).
The only reason the EU has to depend on Huawei is because EU telco hardware which once ran most of China telco can't compete anymore. So they have to play this game until local players get their act together.
Cant compete on what?
Features?
Price?
Do tell, you seem to have information.
For what it's worth, the UK, having banned Huawei stuff, is currently ripping out their Huawei 5G gear and replacing it with largely equipment from Ericsson.
They were bribing officials to try to get them to not ban them in the great Huawei wars of the late 2010's / early 2020's - which led to the UK banning Huawei at the behest of the US for political reasons.
[1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/at-your-service/en/transparen...
Many lobbyists work "simply" by producing reports and collecting data that works in favor or their proposals, publishing them to opinion pieces in newspapers etc.
The EU is not unique in this though.