The EU’s European Fee has awarded a €180 million ($212 million) sovereign cloud contract to 4 European suppliers for a six-year time period. The tender, launched in October 2025, “helps the Fee’s broader efforts to boost its personal sovereignty, reinforcing management in vital applied sciences and infrastructure,” it mentioned in a press release.
Sovereign cloud tender and choice standards
The contract was awarded to Publish Telecom, StackIT, Scaleway, and Proximus. The choice adopted standards masking strategic, authorized and environmental necessities, with provide chain transparency, technological openness, and compliance with EU legal guidelines.
Strategic standards relate to alignment with the European Union’s digital sovereignty targets. Authorized necessities deal with compliance with EU jurisdiction and regulatory frameworks, whereas operational standards relate to service supply skills in Fee use instances.
Environmental issues relate to sustainability and power use in infrastructure. Provide chain transparency issues visibility into distributors and dependencies. Technological openness addresses interoperability and avoidance of vendor lock-in, whereas safety standards relate to knowledge safety and infrastructure management.
The Fee mentioned the tender aligns with its Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which requires suppliers to restrict management by non-EU entities over infrastructure and providers. It mentioned the framework consists of necessities associated to knowledge and entry controls utilized by EU establishments.
The framework is being up to date with further standards to evaluate sovereignty in digital providers utilized by EU establishments. The Fee plans to combine these standards into inner programs utilized by its departments and different EU our bodies. The method standardises how sovereignty is evaluated in its digital operations.
Coverage framework and regulatory initiatives
Individually, the Fee is making ready a broader Tech Sovereignty bundle. This may embody an up to date open-source technique, a second Chips Act, a digitalisation and AI roadmap for the power sector, and the Cloud and AI Growth Act (CADA).
CADA will harmonise necessities for sovereignty in cloud and AI providers within the EU single market. It additionally consists of measures to broaden procurement alternatives and help the entry of further cloud and AI suppliers.
The chosen suppliers met necessities tied to sovereignty controls, together with restrictions on exterior affect over knowledge and infrastructure. The Fee mentioned the tender units a reference level for the way sovereign cloud providers are outlined and delivered.
“Scaling using EU cloud is vital to strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty,” mentioned Henna Virkkunen, govt vice-president for tech sovereignty, safety and democracy on the European Fee.
Suppliers and market context
The suppliers will function by means of partnerships and consortia. Publish Telecom is working with OVHcloud and CleverCloud. Proximus leads a consortium that features Mistral AI, Clarence, Thales, and S3NS, a three way partnership linked to Google Cloud.
In some instances, non-European applied sciences are included in these constructions in keeping with the Fee’s sovereignty necessities.
“The consortium will present cloud providers for the European Fee’s greater than 40 companies,” mentioned Octave Klaba, founder and chief govt of OVHcloud.
The difficulty of digital sovereignty has gained consideration within the European public sector, notably on account of reliance on US-based cloud suppliers. Knowledge dealt with by these suppliers falls below the scope of the CLOUD Act, which permits US authorities to entry knowledge held by US firms.
Cloud infrastructure in Europe is essentially supplied by US-based firms. Amazon Internet Companies, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud account for about 70% of the regional market, based on a European Parliament briefing [PDF].
The legislation applies to US-based firms, together with knowledge they maintain, a consideration for public sector organisations in Europe when choosing cloud service suppliers.
(Photograph by ALEXANDRE LALLEMAND)
See additionally: Genesys prepares EU deployment on AWS European Sovereign Cloud
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