EU awards €180 million sovereign cloud contract to four providers

The EU’s European Commission has awarded a €180 million ($212 million) sovereign cloud contract to four European providers for a six-year term. The tender, launched in October 2025, “supports the Commission’s broader efforts to enhance its own sovereignty, reinforcing control in important technologies and infrastructure,” it said in a statement.

Sovereign cloud tender and selection criteria

The contract was awarded to Post Telecom, StackIT, Scaleway, and Proximus. The selection followed criteria covering strategic, legal and environmental requirements, with supply chain transparency, technological openness, and compliance with EU laws.

Strategic criteria relate to alignment with the European Union’s digital sovereignty objectives. Legal requirements focus on compliance with EU jurisdiction and regulatory frameworks, while operational criteria relate to service delivery abilities in Commission use cases.

Environmental considerations relate to sustainability and energy use in infrastructure. Supply chain transparency concerns visibility into vendors and dependencies. Technological openness addresses interoperability and avoidance of vendor lock-in, while security criteria relate to data protection and infrastructure control.

The Commission said the tender aligns with its Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which requires providers to limit control by non-EU entities over infrastructure and services. It said the framework includes requirements related to data and access controls used by EU institutions.

The framework is being updated with additional criteria to assess sovereignty in digital services used by EU institutions. The Commission plans to integrate these criteria into internal systems used by its departments and other EU bodies. The process standardises how sovereignty is evaluated in its digital operations.

Policy framework and regulatory initiatives

Separately, the Commission is preparing a broader Tech Sovereignty package. This will include an updated open-source strategy, a second Chips Act, a digitalisation and AI roadmap for the energy sector, and the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA).

CADA will harmonise requirements for sovereignty in cloud and AI services in the EU single market. It also includes measures to expand procurement opportunities and support the entry of additional cloud and AI providers.

The selected providers met requirements tied to sovereignty controls, including restrictions on external influence over data and infrastructure. The Commission said the tender sets a reference point for how sovereign cloud services are defined and delivered.

“Scaling the use of EU cloud is important to strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty,” said Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy at the European Commission.

Providers and market context

The providers will operate through partnerships and consortia. Post Telecom is working with OVHcloud and CleverCloud. Proximus leads a consortium that includes Mistral AI, Clarence, Thales, and S3NS, a joint venture linked to Google Cloud.

In some cases, non-European technologies are included in these structures in line with the Commission’s sovereignty requirements.

“The consortium will provide cloud services for the European Commission’s more than 40 agencies,” said Octave Klaba, founder and chief executive of OVHcloud.

The issue of digital sovereignty has gained attention in the European public sector, particularly due to reliance on US-based cloud providers. Data handled by these providers falls under the scope of the CLOUD Act, which allows US authorities to access data held by US companies.

Cloud infrastructure in Europe is largely provided by US-based companies. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud account for about 70% of the regional market, according to a European Parliament briefing [PDF].

The law applies to US-based companies, including data they hold, a consideration for public sector organisations in Europe when selecting cloud service providers.

(Photo by ALEXANDRE LALLEMAND)

See also: Genesys prepares EU deployment on AWS European Sovereign Cloud

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