In April 2026, the European Commission awarded a €180 million contract under the Cloud III Dynamic Purchasing System (Cloud III DPS) to four cloud providers to deliver sovereign cloud for EU institutions, bodies, offices, and agencies.
The framework was developed to strengthen the digital sovereignty posture of Union entities and to encourage the market to offer compliant, values-based cloud solutions that align with EU laws and values.
Sovereignty Effectiveness Assurance Level (SEAL)
A tiered certification assessing whether providers meet defined thresholds of sovereignty and resilience:
SEAL-2
Data Sovereignty
Data stored and processed exclusively under EU jurisdiction
SEAL-3
Technological Autonomy
Operational independence from non-EU entities
SEAL-4
Full Sovereignty
Complete control, auditability, and resilience
48 Criteria Across 8 Categories
The overall sovereignty score is calculated across 48 specific criteria grouped in eight categories, each clearly defined with corresponding scoring methodology: