European Commission taps four providers in €180m sovereign cloud push

The six-year framework will aim to boost EU digital sovereignty

The European Commission has awarded a tender worth up to €180m (£156.9m) to four providers to deliver sovereign cloud services to EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies over six years.

The contracts will aim to boost digital sovereignty and reinforce strategic control across technologies and infrastructure.

They are also designed to ensure diversification and resilience, reducing reliance on a single provider.

The selected providers are Luxembourg-based Post Telecom, Germany-headquartered StackIT, French cloud provider Scaleway and Belgium-HQ Proximus.

The organisations were chosen based on their alignment with the Commission’s Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which assesses sovereignty across strategic, legal, operational and environmental criteria, as well as supply chain transparency, technological openness, security and compliance with EU laws.

Participants were also required to meet strict assurance levels, ensuring that non-EU third parties have limited control over the technologies used and services delivered.

The tender was originally launched as a competition under the Cloud III Dynamic Purchasing System (Cloud III DPS) in October.

The Commission added that non-European technologies can meet sovereignty requirements when operated within an appropriate regulatory framework.

It is now finalising an updated version of its Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which will introduce more detailed criteria for assessing sovereignty and support organisations looking to adopt a similar approach.

Internally, the EU’s executive arm is also working to apply these criteria across its own digital services, with the aim of strengthening sovereignty across EU operations.

It is also reportedly preparing a broader tech sovereignty package, which will include initiatives such as an updated open-source strategy, a follow-up to the Chips Act and a roadmap for digitalisation and AI in energy.

The move follows the European Commission’s launch of three market investigations into cloud computing services under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), including probes into AWS and Microsoft Azure

The inquiries were set to examine whether Amazon and Microsoft should be designated as “gatekeepers” for their cloud computing services, despite not meeting the DMA’s size, user number and market position thresholds.