Measuring European Cloud Sovereignty

And both, it turns out, are closely aligned with the vision articulated last September by the EuroStack initiative (here), our pan-European vision that calls for building a comprehensive, competitive European digital infrastructure founded on private investment that does not rely on public sector subsidies and government regulation. The EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework: Setting the Baseline The CSF (Version 1.2.1 – still due to be finalised and amended) was born out of a practical need: the European Commission required an objective way to evaluate cloud providers bidding for an initial €180 million-worth of sovereign cloud procurement contracts spanning a period of six years – the largest of its kind in EU history, yet only the first step in what will inevitably be a larger procurement effort on Europe’s behalf. At its core, the framework is built around eight Sovereignty Objectives (SOV-1 to SOV-8): strategic sovereignty, legal and jurisdictional sovereignty, data and AI sovereignty, operational sovereignty, supply chain sovereignty, technology sovereignty, security and compliance, and ecological sustainability. Each objective is weighted to reflect the Commission’s strategic priorities – supply chain sovereignty carries the highest weight at 20%, followed by strategic, operational, and technology sovereignty at 15% each, whilst legal, data and AI, and security dimensions each account for 10%, and environmental sustainability 5%. Some may argue ES³ resembles a fork from CSF, introduced by a single services vendor, while the European Commission is by definition more neutral – but, as mentioned, they are close in spirit and substance, both pay in on a more substantial, fact-based discussion about digital sovereignty Where They Differ The most significant differences lie in scope, granularity, and application. Representing a coalition of European digital industry players, supported by some policymakers – and originally made visible by a cross-party group in the European Parliament – EuroStack calls for building European capabilities and assets across the full digital infrastructure supply chain spanning semiconductors, cloud, software, connectivity, AI, quantum computing, and data governance, relying on European capacity and competitive edge, with public sector demand contributing as anchor customer.