Europe is pushing for Digital Sovereignty to reduce its dependence on American technology companies, and recently, the European Parliament backed a report calling for “European technological sovereignty.” Members of the European Parliament (MEP) urged the European Commission to accelerate regulatory reforms and major investments in digital infrastructure. The report targets critical sectors including cloud computing, semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI). Rapporteur MEP Sarah Knafo (ESN/FRA) said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) noted that while some of the findings and measures were softened, this a vital step toward “shielding European digital infrastructure” from foreign actors. Here, we will understand what is Digital Sovereignty, Sovereign Cloud and its benefits, and the big names to know.
What is Digital Sovereignty
Digital sovereignty is term which can be often used interchangeably with data sovereignty. It is basically the principle or a set of rules and regulations that legally allows a country or region (like the European Union or the United Kingdom) to maintain absolute control over its digital assets, infrastructure and citizen data.The need for digital sovereignty arose as the priority from global access in the internet age shifted from security and privacy. The rise of cloud computing and mass data harvesting for advertising raised significant concerns, forcing the governments to find means to regulate it and keep the data of its citizens and offices safe. Countries moved for “data residency” to ensure all the data stays within national borders to prevent it from being exploited by outside entities or accessed by foreign law enforcement. However, to satisfy these requirements, there was a compromise – lose all the benefits of modern technology. This gave the idea of Sovereign Cloud – where nations can deploy security measures without losing the benefits of modern technology.Unlike the standard global cloud, a sovereign cloud is a specialised environment that ensures all data, metadata and administrative operations remain under the jurisdiction of a specific nation. What’s interesting is that the infrastructure can be housed in a provider’s facility or the customer’s home soil but the data remains logically or physically isolated, and is accessible only via secure, non-internet communication links. For example, Google Cloud partnered with Thales in France to host sensitive military data that never leaves French soil.
Benefits of Digital Sovereignty
The benefits of going sovereign go beyond avoiding massive GDPR fines – something that has concerned US tech giants in the last few years. Digital Sovereignty offers geopolitical resilience, especially in the times of trade wars. Having data in a sovereign cloud prevents a foreign government from “turning off” access to critical systems. It also simplifies the supply chain, as large cloud providers can procure hardware like AI chips more easily than a single local firm.However, there are challenges because of the fast moving tech industry. Sovereign clouds often face delays in feature rollouts, such as new AI tools, which typically hit global regions before they are cleared for sovereign partitions. However, this is also changing due to innovations in communication technology. In 2026, the world’s biggest tech companies have started embracing it as a business model.Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently launched its European Sovereign Cloud (ESC) in Germany, physically isolated from its global network. Oracle, operates two separate EU Sovereign regions in Frankfurt and Madrid.Similarly, Microsoft’s “Cloud for Sovereignty” uses local partners like Bleu in France to ensure the infrastructure is operated by local entities. It’s competitor Google focuses on “Trusted Cloud” partnerships with firms like T-Systems (Deutsche Telekom) to manage data centers on their behalf.
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