Thirteen European cloud providers have joined NGOs and lawmakers in signing an open letter backing the European Commission‘s effort to reduce the continent’s dependence on US-based cloud infrastructure, a market that American companies have dominated for roughly two decades.
Among the signatories are some recognizable names. French cloud vendor OVHcloud, Germany’s Nextcloud, Swiss privacy company Proton, browser maker Ecosia, social networks Mastodon and Monnett Social, and Dutch quantum chip company QuantWare all put their names to the letter. In addition, six civil organizations, including Defend Democracy and Save Social, signed alongside multiple European Parliament lawmakers.
The message the letter carries is direct. “Build European, buy European, protect European,” said European Parliament lawmaker Alexandra Geese, summarizing the coalition’s position in a single line. Beyond that, the longer version, as laid out in the letter itself, frames technological sovereignty as Europe’s ability to design, understand, build, operate, and regulate the digital systems its economy depends on, drawing from home-grown sources rather than foreign platforms.
The concern driving the push is not abstract, either. European businesses have grown increasingly uneasy about how US-based providers handle data under American law and whether that creates friction with EU regulations. Those concerns became harder to dismiss after the European Commission announced in May that it would consider new rules governing how US hyperscalers process sensitive data from European governments. As a result, smaller EU-based cloud providers now see a genuine opening to compete in a market they have largely been squeezed out of.
Furthermore, the numbers suggest that market is worth fighting for. Gartner projected earlier this year that European cloud infrastructure spending will climb from $6.7 billion in 2025 to over $23.1 billion by 2027, eventually overtaking both China and North America. That kind of growth trajectory makes current US dominance look less like a permanent condition and more like a window that could close if European providers and policymakers move in the same direction simultaneously.
Whether the Commission acts decisively enough to shift procurement habits at scale, however, remains the open question. Letters and projections set the tone. Ultimately, regulatory follow-through and actual purchasing decisions will determine whether European cloud sovereignty moves from a policy conversation into a real structural market shift.
