EU wants to crack down even more on the use of US cloud platforms for sensitive government data

EU tech sovereignty package could push Amazon, Microsoft and Google to withdraw from more public sector contracts
New rules would determine which public sector data should be stored on European clouds
The Cloud Act of 2018 is also a concern: sovereign cloud does not prevent access by US law enforcement

The European Commission is reportedly considering imposing new rules that could prevent U.S. hyperscalers from processing highly sensitive government and public sector data within the bloc.

CNBC reports that the Commission is expected to publish its “technological sovereignty package” on May 27, 2026, with the aim of increasing Europe’s technological independence and sovereignty by reducing its dependence on foreign technology companies.

Given that Amazon accounts for about a third of the global cloud market and Microsoft and Google together account for about another third, this could give smaller European competitors a fighting chance in the market.

Europe continues to push for technological sovereignty

It is likely that potential upcoming rules would focus on sensitive categories such as health records, financial information and legal data, with current discussions primarily focusing on the public sector and not private companies.

“The central idea is to define the sectors that must be hosted on European cloud capacity,” said an anonymous official close to the matter cited by CNBC explain.

Although the move is primarily a pro-European initiative rather than an anti-US effort, it would disproportionately affect US companies given their market dominance.

A key driver of Europe’s attempt to become more independent is said to be the US Cloud Act of 2018, which theoretically allows US law enforcement to request user data from any US company, regardless of whether the data is stored locally in Europe.

That hasn’t stopped US hyperscalers from trying to pacify European businesses and customers, with Microsoft launching the Microsoft Sovereign Cloud and partnering with local companies like France’s Bleu and Germany’s Delos. Amazon also has its own European sovereign cloud AWS, and Google Cloud also offers a series of sovereign and isolated solutions.

For now, however, it is only a question of how the European Commission will define the future of technological sovereignty and whether all 27 member countries agree with the changes.

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