EURO-3C offers Europe a sovereign cloud solution, digital autonomy, and reduces geopolitical risks associated with US cloud providers.

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The EU is pushing for cloud sovereignty through EURO-3C, a pan-European cloud initiative backed by Telefónica and the European Commission, amid growing concerns about dependence on US hyperscalers. Four US providers (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud) control roughly 70% of EU cloud services, and the US CLOUD Act theoretically allows American authorities to access data stored abroad. Geopolitical tensions under the Trump administration have made these risks more tangible. The EC released a sovereignty framework in October 2025 to score cloud providers bidding for public contracts, penalizing reliance on non-EU supply chains, staff, and laws. However, European alternatives like OVHcloud and Scaleway remain far smaller than US hyperscalers, and vendor lock-in poses a major challenge. Some organizations are adopting multi-cloud strategies, using EU providers for sensitive workloads while retaining hyperscalers for others, though this increases integration costs and complexity.

Is EURO-3C Europe's Path to Cloud Sovereignty?