On Friday, April 17, 2026, the European Commission selected four European entities that, under the Cloud Sovereignty Framework introduced in October 2025, will provide the Community’s institutions, bodies, offices, and agencies with sovereign cloud services worth 180 million EUR over a six-year period.
The four winners of the procedure are European companies: Post Telecom with partners CleverCloud and OVHcloud, StackIT, Scaleway, and Proximus, which is working with S3NS, a Thales and Google Cloud joint venture, as well as Clarence and Mistral.
This tender supports the European Commission’s broader efforts to strengthen its own sovereignty by reinforcing strategic control over key technologies and infrastructure.
The selected providers were chosen based on their compliance with the Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which measures sovereignty against eight objectives. These include strategic, legal, operational, and environmental issues, as well as supply chain transparency, technological openness, security, and compliance with EU law. The European Commission awarded four contracts in parallel to ensure diversification and resilience, avoiding excessive reliance on a single provider. To qualify, providers had to meet rigorous assurance levels that non-EU entities have limited control over the technologies used by the providers or the services they deliver.
The widespread use of EU cloud computing is a prerequisite for improving the EU’s digital sovereignty. The Commission is leading by example, and the Sovereign Cloud tender sets a new standard for what “sovereign” means in practical terms when applied to cloud services.
The tender encourages the entire sector to comply with European standards and values. Its success underscores the high quality of European providers, demonstrating their ability to meet the Commission’s strict criteria. It also shows that technologies from outside Europe, operating within strict and appropriate frameworks, can meet the minimum required level of sovereignty.
The Commission is finalizing an updated version of the Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which will include detailed criteria for conducting sovereignty assessments. This update is intended to support entities that wish to reuse the Commission’s approach.
The Commission is also working internally to adapt the sovereignty criteria developed to assess and strengthen sovereignty in the digital services provided to its institutions, bodies, offices, and agencies, as well as other EU entities.
The Commission is also preparing a technology sovereignty package. This package will include an Open Source Strategy, the Chips Act 2, the Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in Energy, and the Cloud and AI Development Act.
The CADA will harmonize the meaning of sovereignty for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services across the single market. It will improve the capabilities of sovereign cloud offerings, including through public procurement, and support market entry by a more diverse range of cloud and AI service providers.
The tender was launched as a competition under the Cloud III Dynamic Purchasing System (Cloud III DPS) in October 2025.
Press release