Behind its ambitions to develop cloud computing and artificial intelligence, the Cloud and AI Development Act primarily marks the entry of digital sovereignty into European public procurement law. A development that is already drawing criticism from American giants in the sector. On June 3, the European Commission presented its highly anticipated Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA), the centerpiece of its “technological sovereignty” package. While the text also includes measures aimed at accelerating the construction of data centers and supporting the development of European technologies through new “Cloud and AI Leadership Initiatives,” it is above all its ambitious “cloud sovereignty” framework that is expected to dominate discussions in the coming months. No definition The term is, in fact, used quite liberally. The words “sovereign” or “sovereignty”—the text is available only in English—appear no fewer than 72 times in the proposal’s 129 pages. However,…
