EU pushes for stronger cloud sovereignty, awards €180 million to four providers

The European Commission is stepping up efforts to strengthen the EU’s digital sovereignty by awarding a cloud services tender worth up to €180 million over six years. The initiative gives EU institutions and agencies access to sovereign cloud services delivered by a group of Europe-based providers.

Four vendors were selected under the tender. Post Telecom will work with CleverCloud and OVHcloud, while STACKIT and Scaleway secured contracts independently. Proximus joins the list through partnerships with S3NS (a joint venture of Thales and Google Cloud), Clarence, and Mistral.

The tender was launched in October 2025 as a competition under the Commission’s Cloud III Dynamic Purchasing System.

“The awarded providers were selected based on their alignment with the Commission’s Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which measures sovereignty across eight objectives. These include strategic, legal, operational, and environmental considerations, as well as supply chain transparency, technological openness, security, and compliance with EU laws,” officials noted.

With these four contracts, the Commission aims to ensure diversification and resilience while avoiding over-reliance on a single provider. To qualify, the providers had to demonstrate that non-EU third parties have limited influence over the technologies and services involved.

“The tender encourages the entire sector to comply with European standards and values,” The Commission added.

Next steps include updating the Cloud Sovereignty Framework with more detailed assessment criteria and applying those standards within its own digital services.

The Commission is also preparing a Tech Sovereignty package that will include an Open Source strategy, Chips Act 2, a roadmap for digitalisation and AI in energy, and the Cloud and AI Development Act, which will define how sovereignty for cloud and AI services is applied within the single market.