European businesses press U.S. tech providers for stronger sovereignty guarantees

European businesses are increasingly concerned about their dependence on U.S. cloud and technology providers and want stronger assurances that access will not be cut off. The European Commission has introduced a Cloud Sovereignty Framework with 48 criteria and proposed legislation to extend sovereignty assessments across public-sector cloud services. U.S. tech companies must prove their commitments will remain reliable as customers seek guarantees that survive political shifts.

Brussels’s 48-point sovereignty test examines who legally controls services, how data is handled, operational arrangements and supply-chain dependencies. Though aimed at public buying, the Commission encourages private use; a proposed Cloud and AI development Act would widen public-sector reviews, with stricter checks for sensitive services.

A Proximus-led group won one of four contracts worth up to €180 million; its S3NS, a Thales-controlled French company running Google Cloud, shows U.S. technology can qualify through a European operating structure. Microsoft has promised to fight any order suspending its European cloud operations and has made that pledge binding in government contracts, with Swiss code backups and European continuity partners as fallbacks.