DAILY NEWS
Brussels, 17 April 2026
Commission awards €180 million tender for sovereign cloud to four European providers
The European Commission is strengthening the European Union's digital sovereignty by awarding a tender that allows EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies (Union entities) to procure sovereign cloud services for up to €180 million over 6 years.
The four awarded providers are European companies: Post Telecom with its partners CleverCloud and OVHcloud, StackIT, Scaleway, and finally Proximus, which partners with S3NS (a joint venture of Thales and Google Cloud), Clarence and Mistral.
This tender supports the Commission's broader efforts to enhance its own sovereignty, reinforcing strategic control across key technologies and infrastructure.
The awarded providers were selected based on their alignment with the Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework, which measures sovereignty across eight objectives. These include strategic, legal, operational, and environmental considerations, as well as supply chain transparency, technological openness, security, and compliance with EU laws. The Commission awarded four contracts in parallel to ensure diversification and resilience, avoiding over-reliance on a single provider. To be eligible, the providers had to reach rigorous assurance levels ensuring that non-EU third parties have limited control over the technologies the providers use, or services they provide.
Large-scale use of the EU cloud is a prerequisite for improving the EU's digital sovereignty. The Commission leads by example, as the Sovereign Cloud call for tenders sets a new benchmark for what ‘sovereign' means in practice for cloud services.
The tender encourages the entire sector to comply with European standards and values. Its success highlights the high quality of European providers, demonstrating their ability to meet the Commission's strict criteria. It also shows that non-European technologies, when operated within a strict and appropriate framework, can meet the minimum level of sovereignty required.
Next steps
The Commission is finalising an updated version of the Cloud Sovereignty Framework that will include specific criteria to perform sovereignty assessments. This update is meant to support the entities that are willing to reuse the Commission's approach.
Internally, the Commission is working on adapting the developed sovereignty criteria to assess and enhance sovereignty across the digital services that it provides to its departments and other Union entities.
The Commission is also preparing the Tech Sovereignty package. This package will include the Open Source strategy, the Chips Act 2, the Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in Energy, and the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA).
The CADA will harmonise what sovereignty for Cloud and AI computing services means across the single market. It will improve opportunities for sovereign cloud offerings, including through public procurement, and support the entry into the market of a more diverse set of cloud and AI service providers.
Background
The tender was launched as a competition under the Cloud III Dynamic Purchasing System (Cloud III DPS) in October 2025.
For more information
Cloud Sovereignty Framework
DIGIT Europa
Second meeting of Special Panel to advise President von der Leyen on child online safety
Today, the Special Panel on child online safety advising President von der Leyen on child online safety, convened for a second meeting. Today's meeting focused on current EU rules and initiatives to protect minors online, shared by experts advising Member States, as well as international approaches, such as Australia's social media minimum age. This meeting follows yesterday's presentation by the Commission of the final EU age verification app, the most privacy-preserving and user-friendly tool to protect children online.
President Ursula von der Leyen, said: “We must protect our children in the online world, just as we do in the offline world. And for that, we need a harmonised European approach. Yesterday, I presented our EU age verification app - this is our European solution. With the highest privacy standards in the world. I encourage all our Member States to start customising our app so it can be used by citizens soon. Because this tool will help parents protect their children across platforms.”
The participants of the full-day meeting included youth representatives, legal specialists, computer scientists, medical professionals and child rights advocates. The discussions focused on new and improved approaches at EU level, as well as non-legislative initiatives that can ensure children are safer online.
The meeting builds on insights from the first panel meeting, which examined the latest research on the opportunities and risks associated with children's online activities, such as social media, gaming, AI applications and messaging platforms.
The Special Panel on child online safety is co-chaired by Maria Melchior, Research Director at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and Professor Dr Jörg M. Fegert, Director of the Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy at Ulm University Medical Centre. The list of participants is available online.
The Special Panel does not have permanent membership and the specialists invited may vary from meeting to meeting, as the President seeks the views of a broad audience.
EU Age Verification App
President von der Leyen and Executive Vice-President Virkkunen presented yesterday the final EU age verification app, the most privacy-preserving and user-friendly solution that will soon be available across the EU on all devices. The EU age verification app is also open source, therefore allowing partner countries to rely on it.
The EU app verifies a user's age online without sharing any personal information thanks to the 'zero-knowledge proof' method. Online platforms can fully rely on the EU age verification app to ensure that children are not exposed to dangerous or harmful content on their services. Under the Digital Services Act, online platforms are legally required to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors in the EU.
In July 2025*, the Commission first presented the blueprint of the app, which it then provided to Member States to test and develop in their national contexts. Seven frontrunner Member States are already piloting the development of the app: France, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Ireland. They are planning to integrate the app into their national eID wallets.
The Commission will convene the panel for a third meeting of the social media panel in the coming months. By the summer of 2026, the co-chairs will report to the President on findings and recommendations informed by the Special Panel meetings.
On the EU age verification app, all Member States can now start customising the app to offer it to their citizens.
President von der Leyen is also discussing the protection of children online with global leaders, including in a videoconference today on digital majority age with European partners, hosted by the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
*Updated on 16/04/2026 at 17:45
Quote(s)
We must protect our children in the online world, just as we do in the offline world. And for that, we need a harmonised European approach. Yesterday, I presented our EU age verification app - this is our European solution. With the highest privacy standards in the world. I encourage all our Member States to start customising our app so it can be used by citizens soon. Because this tool will help parents protect their children across platforms.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
Protecting minors online is a top priority. Europe will not tolerate that platforms make money at the expense of our kids. The internet must be a safe place for our kids – this is a crucial pillar of the Digital Services Act. One where they can learn, grow and connect. And we are deeply committed to making it a reality.
Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy