European Companies Stand Against American Tech Giants: New 'Cloud Data' Proposal Must Be Rejected

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Airbus, and 15 other European companies have criticized a proposed plan to grant licenses to American companies such as Amazon, Google (owned by Alphabet), and Microsoft to participate in sensitive cloud computing contract tenders of the European Union. Reuters reported on Wednesday that the draft of this proposal regarding the EU Cybersecurity Certification (EUCS) program, aimed at ensuring the cybersecurity of cloud services, was presented by Belgium, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU. This program helps governments and companies in the bloc choose a secure and trusted provider. The proposed plan removes the so-called 'sovereignty' requirements from the previous draft. In the earlier plan, American tech giants were required to establish a joint project or collaborate with a company based in the EU to store and process customer data in the region to qualify for the highest level of the EU's cybersecurity label. The Belgian proposal will be discussed by cybersecurity experts from the 27 EU member countries on April 15, and its implementation in the fall could pave the way for its approval by the European Commission. Criticism from Major European Companies Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Airbus, and 15 other European companies have criticized the new proposal. In a joint letter to their governments and senior officials of the European Commission, they emphasized: 'EU countries must reject this latest proposal without sovereignty requirements. The necessity of including EU provisions and control requirements in the main plan is vital to reduce the risk of illegal access to data based on foreign laws.' In their letter, which Reuters has accessed, these companies warned that without such requirements, European data would be accessible under the laws of foreign governments, such as the U.S. Cloud Act or China's National Intelligence Law. Tech giants are seeking the lucrative 'government cloud' market for further growth, while the EU is concerned about illegal surveillance and the dominance of U.S. cloud providers in this area. Concerns about Weakening the European Cybersecurity Ecosystem The criticizing companies in the EU have stated that the EU cybersecurity label should follow the example of the European Gaia-X cloud computing platform; a platform created to reduce the EU's dependence on American 'Silicon Valley' giants and has sovereignty requirements. They argue that the absence of sovereignty clauses undermines emerging cloud providers in the EU in competition with larger American rivals. At the end of their letter, these companies stated: 'The removal of such requirements from the plan will seriously undermine the feasibility of independent cloud solutions in Europe. Many of them are either in development or already exist in the market.'