UK — The Register
Europe’s cloud sovereignty rules could do more harm than good
Policy1 min read
A report from the think tank ECIPE says Europe's push for "cloud sovereignty" (keeping cloud data and services under local or EU control) may be helping national companies at the expense of a single European cloud market. It criticizes the EU's proposed Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA).
What happened
A study by the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) looked at public cloud contracts in nine EU countries. It found that every contract that used the word "sovereignty" went to a company from the same country, not from another EU country. The report says the EU's proposed CADA law could make this worse, not better.
Key numbers and facts
- The study looked at 8,725 cloud-related government contracts from 2018 to 2025.
- Nearly all contracts went to providers in the same country. Very little competition came from other EU countries.
- Every contract that used the new "sovereignty" wording went to a domestic provider.
- Many domestic winners rely on big US "hyperscale" cloud companies for their basic computing power.
Two different ideas of sovereignty
ECIPE says people use the word "sovereignty" for two different goals. The first is security: users should keep their data safe and be able to choose and switch providers. The second is industry: Europe wants its own companies to grow without facing non-European rivals. CADA tries to reach both goals at once, which the report calls confusing.
Why it matters
The report warns that sovereignty rules could block big European cloud firms from growing and split the market into separate national pieces. ECIPE suggests judging sovereignty by results, such as whether a buyer can keep data safe and switch providers when needed, rather than by where a company's owners come from.
What to watch
- How the EU changes CADA before it becomes law.
- Whether governments keep choosing domestic providers for public cloud contracts.
- Whether rules protect the ability to move data between cloud providers (portability) and work with several clouds at once (multi-cloud).
Glossary
- ECIPE
- A think tank (research group) that studies international economics and trade policy.
- CADA
- The Cloud and AI Development Act, a proposed EU law about cloud computing and AI.
- sovereignty
- In cloud terms, control over where data sits and who can access it.
- portability
- The ability to move data and services from one cloud provider to another.