The Commission awards a €180 million contract for the sovereign cloud to four European suppliers

The European Commission is strengthening the European Union’s digital sovereignty by awarding a contract that enables EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies (EU entities) to procure sovereign cloud services worth up to €180 million over a six-year period.

The four successful bidders are European companies: Post Telecom with its partners CleverCloud and OVHcloud, STACKIT,Scaleway and, finally, Proximus ,which is partnering with S3NS (a joint venture between Thales and Google Cloud), Clarence and Mistral.

This tender supports the Commission’s broader efforts to enhance its own sovereignty by strengthening strategic control over key technologies and infrastructure.

The successful suppliers were selected based on their compliance with theCommission’sCloud Sovereignty Framework, which assesses sovereignty against eight objectives. These include strategic, legal, operational and environmental considerations, as well as supply chain transparency, technological openness, security and compliance with EU legislation. The Commission awarded four contracts in parallel to ensure diversification and resilience, avoiding over-reliance on a single supplier. To be eligible, suppliers had to meet rigorous assurance levels ensuring that non-EU third parties had limited control over the technologies they use or the services they provide.

The widespread use of the EU Cloud is a prerequisite for enhancing the European Union’s digital sovereignty. The Commission is leading by example, asthe Sovereign Cloud tendersets a new benchmark for what ‘sovereign’ means in practice for cloud services. 

The tender encourages the entire sector to comply with European standards and values. Its success highlights the high quality of European providers, demonstrating their ability to meet the Commission’s strict criteria. It also demonstrates that non-European technologies, when used within a strict and appropriate framework, can achieve the minimum level of sovereignty required.

Next steps

The Commission is finalising an updated version of the Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which will include specific criteria for conducting sovereignty assessments. This update aims to support organisations wishing to reuse the Commission’s approach.

Internally, the Commission is working on adapting the sovereignty criteria developed to assess and improve sovereignty across all digital services it provides to its departments and other Union bodies.

The Commission is also preparing the Technological Sovereignty package. This package will include the open-source strategy, the Chips Act 2, the Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in the Energy Sector, and the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA).

The CADA will harmonise the meaning of sovereignty for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services across the single market. It will improve opportunities for sovereign cloud offerings, including through public procurement, and support market entry for a more diverse range of cloud and artificial intelligence service providers.

Background

The tender was launched as a competition within the Cloud III Dynamic Purchasing System (Cloud III DPS) in October 2025.  

More information: European Commission.