European Commission Awards 180 Million Euro Sovereign Cloud Contract

The European Commission awarded a 180 million euro cloud contract to a group of European providers to enhance the European Union's digital sovereignty. The six-year agreement provides sovereign cloud services for the commission, the EU Parliament, the council, and their respective agencies. The deal utilizes a multi-vendor model involving several providers, including Post Telecom, StackIT, Scaleway, and Proximus, as well as a consortium comprising OVHcloud, DEEP (part of POST Luxembourg Group), and Clever Cloud.

Within the consortium, OVHcloud will provide high-capacity infrastructure via its OPCP platform, Clever Cloud will supply an orchestration layer including PaaS and containerization, and DEEP will contribute hosting, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence expertise. The move aligns with the commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework to increase strategic autonomy and reduce dependency on non-European technologies.

This initiative follows a March security breach where hackers stole 90 gigabytes of data from a commission AWS account. While the commission stated it is not excluding U.S. technology entirely, the contract reflects a broader trend of EU nations reducing reliance on American tech. Similar shifts have occurred in France, where the public sector is moving away from non-European software, and among several governments migrating away from U.S. messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal to mitigate risks of external control over critical infrastructure.