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The EU is encouraging the development of cloud solutions aligned with European laws and values
In sum – what to know:
€180M framework – The European Commission awarded a six-year sovereign cloud procurement to support EU institutions, reinforcing digital sovereignty through structured public sector demand.
Multi-provider model – Contracts were granted to four providers and partnerships to avoid vendor lock-in and strengthen resilience across the ecosystem.
SEAL framework – A new sovereignty scoring system sets measurable criteria, with most providers reaching SEAL-3, signaling strong compliance and reduced external dependency.
The European Commission has taken a significant step in advancing digital sovereignty by awarding contracts under its Sovereign Cloud procurement program, enabling EU institutions and agencies to access compliant cloud services worth up to €180 million ($211.6 million) over six years.
Launched in October, the initiative aims to strengthen the EU’s control over its digital infrastructure while encouraging the development of cloud solutions aligned with European laws and values.
To ensure diversification and reduce dependency on a single vendor, the Commission selected four providers. These include a Luxembourgish-French consortium led by Post Telecom with OVHcloud and CleverCloud, Germany’s STACKIT, France’s Scaleway, and a Belgian-French-Luxembourgish partnership led by Proximus, which incorporates services from S3NS, Clarence, and Mistral.
A key element of the process was the introduction of the Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which translates sovereignty requirements into measurable procurement criteria. The framework evaluates providers across eight areas, including legal compliance, operational control, supply chain transparency, and security, using a classification system known as Sovereignty Effectiveness Assurance Levels (SEAL).
To qualify, providers were required to achieve at least SEAL-2, indicating full compliance with EU data protection standards. Most selected providers reached SEAL-3, demonstrating a higher level of resilience, including reduced exposure to disruptions from non-EU supply chains.
The results highlight the growing maturity of Europe’s cloud ecosystem. Several providers rely primarily on European-developed technologies, while others combine non-European platforms with EU-based operational control to meet sovereignty requirements.
Beyond sovereignty, the European Commission emphasized technical capabilities, including support for platform-as-a-service (PaaS), automation, and developer tools. All selected providers met high standards for performance and security, underscoring the competitiveness of European cloud offerings.
Looking ahead, the Commission said it plans to refine the framework based on lessons from this process and extend its use across other digital services, reinforcing its broader strategy to build a secure and autonomous digital ecosystem.
In related developments, the European Commission has released aggregated data on the energy performance of data centers under the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), indicating 6.4GW of installed IT power demand across member states.
The directive, designed to improve transparency around data center energy use in the European Union, requires operators to disclose key metrics including energy efficiency, water consumption, and heat reuse.
The dataset, covering 2023 and 2024, includes figures on total energy consumption, installed IT power capacity, and overall water intake, along with average indicators such as power usage effectiveness (PUE), water usage effectiveness (WUE), renewable energy factor (REF), and energy reuse factor (ERF). It spans 18 countries across the bloc, including major markets such as Germany, the Netherlands, and France.
