On 3 June, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented a digital sovereignty strategy designed to reduce Europe’s dependence on foreign technology — above all from the United States — in areas such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Why now
The concern in Brussels is that dependence on American technology could become a source of political pressure. Trade tensions with the administration of President Donald Trump, and the temporary suspension in June of access to some advanced US AI models because of US export controls, have shown how exposed European users can be to decisions taken outside Europe.
The cloud problem
Cloud computing — the remote servers that store data and run applications for businesses and governments — is at the heart of the strategy. Around 70% of the European market is controlled by three US companies: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. European providers account for only around 15%.
Under US law, notably the CLOUD Act, American authorities can in certain circumstances require US companies to hand over data, even if it is stored in Europe.
The SEAL scale
The Commission has proposed a rating system for cloud providers, known as SEAL, running from 0 to 4:
- 0: no guarantee of European control.
- 1: data subject to European law.
- 2: data sovereignty guaranteed.
- 3: protection against supply-chain disruption.
- 4: full European control, from chips to software.
The idea is to encourage public bodies and critical sectors to use providers with higher ratings for sensitive data.
The catch
Only a handful of providers reach level 3, and none has yet reached level 4. In practice, that means much of Europe’s public data could continue to be handled by US companies, operating through European subsidiaries designed to meet the lower levels.
What it means
For governments, banks, hospitals and other critical services, the ratings could become an important factor in choosing technology suppliers. For European cloud companies, they are an opportunity — but also a challenge, as they will need major investment to compete with the scale and range of services offered by the American giants.
The plan is a first step towards defining what “sovereign” cloud means in Europe. Whether it changes the balance of the market will depend on how strictly the criteria are applied and whether Europe invests enough to build real alternatives.
