EU technological sovereignty requires high-value data centres and strategic development of critical capabilities
CSC welcomes the European Commission’s proposal for a Cloud and AI Development Act and supports its objectives of strengthening Europe’s technological sovereignty and reducing strategic dependencies on non-European cloud and AI providers. It is important to maintain the level of ambition of the proposal throughout the legislative process and aim to ensure that key parts of the Cloud and AI value chain remain under European control.
When increasing Europe’s data centre capacity, priority must be given to high-value data centres that deliver clear benefits for research, innovation, employment, resilience, sustainability and regional development. It is also strategically important to advance European data ownership and shared data infrastructures. Continued investment is needed in initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and Open Web Search for Europe to be able to retain and create value from data generated within Europe.
The research, development and deployment activities for the cloud and AI ecosystem must be closely aligned with other EU-funded RDI activities, particularly those implemented through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and the Chips Joint Undertaking. When it comes to the proposed assurance levels for cloud services used by the public sector, it is crucial to ensure that they are ambitious enough to give a tangible boost to Europe’s technological sovereignty while avoiding creating unnecessary barriers for emerging European cloud providers.
Europe’s competitiveness depends on developing European Cloud and AI capabilities as a single, interconnected ecosystem together with High-Performance Computing, data, quantum technologies, semiconductors, connectivity and digital skills. This requires stronger coordination between EU programmes, investments and regulation to ensure that these capabilities reinforce each other and create long-term value for Europe.
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Irina Kupiainen
Irina Kupiainen is responsible for CSC’s public affairs.