TL;DR
- AWS has announced the European Sovereign Cloud, a new cloud infrastructure designed to meet the evolving digital sovereignty needs of European governments and regulated industries.
- The cloud will be operated and supported exclusively by EU residents, with a dedicated Security Operations Center and localized governance structure.
- The initiative aims to provide customers with more control over their data, while maintaining the full power of AWS.
- Even with the European governance model, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud does not solve the fundamental issues of sovereignty and must be regarded as fairy dust.
Introduction
On the recent AWS Summit in Hamburg, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the European Sovereign Cloud, a new cloud infrastructure designed to meet the evolving digital sovereignty needs of European governments and regulated industries.
According to the AWS website, the European Sovereign Cloud will be operated and supported exclusively by EU residents, with a dedicated Security Operations Center and localized governance structure. This initiative aims to provide customers with more control over their data, while maintaining the full power of AWS.
Key Features and Benefits
The AWS European Sovereign Cloud will have several key features, including:
- Local leadership and governance: The cloud will be led by a local European leadership team, with a dedicated managing director and a government security and privacy official.
- Dedicated Security Operations Center: The cloud will have a dedicated Security Operations Center, which will be responsible for monitoring and responding to cyber threats.
- Localized infrastructure: The cloud will be built on localized infrastructure, with data centers and network infrastructure located within the EU.
- Compliance with EU regulations: The cloud will be designed to comply with EU regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
AWS aims to achieve this by creating a completely separate AWS instance in Europe, with it’s own governance structure, legal entity, etc.
Conclusion
The model AWS is pursuing with their AWS European Sovereign Cloud has its benefits and drawbacks. In any case, software sovereignty is not given, lock-in remains, and the European entity is a 100% subsidiary of AWS. This construct can still be misused in negotiations and conflicts. True sovereignty looks different.
References
[^1]: AWS (2025). “AWS European Sovereign Cloud”. https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/europe-digital-sovereignty. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
[^2]: About Amazon EU (2025). “Built, operated, controlled, and secured in Europe: AWS unveils new sovereign controls and governance structure for the AWS European Sovereign Cloud”. https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/aws/built-operated-controlled-and-secured-in-europe-aws-unveils-new-sovereign-controls-and-governance-structure-for-the-aws-european-sovereign-cloud. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
[^3]: The Register (2025). “AWS forms EU-based cloud unit as customers fret about Trump 2.0”. https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/03/aws_european_sovereign_cloud/. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
[^4]: TechCrunch (2025). “AWS establishes new German corporate presence to advance European Sovereign Cloud”. https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/03/aws-establishes-new-german-corporate-presence-to-advance-european-sovereign-cloud. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
