EU Governments May Back European Cloud Project
EU governments are keen to support GAIA-X, an initiative to develop European cloud and data services, they said at a Thursday hybrid conference. Policymakers, scientists and businesses worldwide are working to create a federated and secure data infrastructure that will…
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enable data-sharing by enterprises and citizens in a way that allows them to keep control over it, GAIA-X's website says. Government officials from Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands said they want Europe to have digital sovereignty that aligns with EU rules. France wants GAIA-X to provide visibility and transparency to users on sovereignty and protection against extraterritorial regulation, said Mathieu Weill, French Ministry of Economy digital economy department head. The project's other pillar is creating data spaces, and Germany wants an "active and engaged community" to bring shared data spaces to life, said Stefan Schnorr, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy digital and innovation policy department head. The Netherlands is active in data-sharing covering thousands of businesses and wants to stimulate public sector participation, said Jos de Groot, Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs telecom market department director. GAIA-X needs a human-centric perspective and a clear process for sharing data, said Carme Artigas, Spanish secretary of state-digitization and artificial intelligence. Other countries outside European are also developing cloud infrastructure, so solutions are needed to allow data to be transferable among systems, Schnorr said; the key is for data to be able to be moved transparently, securely and in a trusted manner. GAIA-X faces criticism because its members include U.S. and Chinese companies. The project is private sector-driven, said Weill: Governments are here to support it and ensure it upholds European values but have no say in membership. The European project needs a global infrastructure, Schnorr added.