Digital euro goes full sovereignty mode, US cloud giants not on guest list
- Reference: 1774522814
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/03/26/digital_euro_sovereignty/
- Source link:
French businesses OVHcloud and Scaleway are providing a sovereign European cloud infrastructure to support the digital currency, a European Central Bank scheme to enable electronic payments in shops, online, and person-to-person.
Europe's cloud challenge: Building an Airbus for the digital age [1]READ MORE
The project's driving motivation is independence from American-owned payment networks. European payments are dominated by US companies like Visa and Mastercard, according to Finance Watch, which says that more than two-thirds of card transactions in the euro area were settled through international payment schemes in the second half of 2023.
At the same time, Europe is also highly dependent on US tech giants for cloud compute services. Data from Synergy Research last year showed that [2]local cloud providers make up just 15 percent of the European cloud market , while the three global giants – Amazon, Microsoft, and Google – take about 70 percent between them.
That dependence carries real risk: as a Microsoft executive admitted under oath last year, the US CLOUD Act may compel providers to [3]hand over any data stored on its systems to the American authorities , regardless of where in the world that data is held.
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To address this, the ECB restricted eligibility to EU-based providers only. In a statement sent to The Register , spokesperson told us:
In October 2025, following a call for applications launched in 2024, the ECB selected providers for five digital euro components and related services and signed framework agreements with several suppliers. Senacor, selected provider for the SEPI (Secure Exchange of Payment Information) component, has submitted two cloud companies as its subcontractors: OVH and Scaleway. Only providers based in the EU were eligible to apply, in order to ensure the European autonomy of the project.
The SEPI system handles secure exchange of payment information between the organizations involved in the digital euro system.
Experts The Reg spoke to approved of the move.
[5]Europe's cloud minnows tell Brussels to stop big tech 'sovereignty-washing'
[6]Office EU waves sovereignty flag with a familiar stack under the bonnet
[7]UK still doodling digital pound while Brussels frets over payment sovereignty
[8]Europe preps Digital Euro to enter circulation in 2029
"The ECB restricting eligibility to EU-based providers is sovereignty written into procurement policy, and that's the right call. Europe is actively choosing to invest in its own tech sector while protecting citizens' financial data from foreign jurisdiction. That matters," Informa Fellow and Canapii co-founder Steve Brazier told The Register .
"If the EU is the first major market to launch a sovereign digital currency then it could spur all sorts of financial innovation and provide a much-needed economic boost to its companies and citizens," he said, but added: "OVHcloud's [9]Canadian court battle shows that EU incorporation alone isn't a complete shield against foreign interference and Europe's legal frameworks need to keep pace too."
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So is this a tentative first step toward digital sovereignty for the EU?
"Yes, I think this is Europe beginning to get their act together, but I do think it may be too little too late as the cloud boat has sailed," said Omdia Chief Analyst Roy Illsley.
[12]
"However, the AI boat is still in the harbor and this may be a step towards building an AI-enabled payment system based on European technology complying with EU rules and regulations."
Switzerland built a secure alternative to BGP. The rest of the world hasn't noticed yet [13]READ MORE
Gartner VP analyst Nader Henein told us the ECB and other European institutions are going to have to lead by example if the EU wants digital sovereignty.
"The digital euro project is one of the ECB's primary initiatives and the ECB has long been a strong advocate for digital sovereignty, so it's very difficult not to draw a straight line to the choice of two sovereign cloud platforms as a foundation for Europe's digital currency," he said.
The digital euro is not a done deal yet. The ECB will only take a decision to issue the digital euro once the relevant regulation is approved by the European Parliament and Council of the European Union. If this happens during 2026, then the digital euro could be issued sometime in 2029. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/29/europes_cloud_challenge_building_an/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/euro_cloud_vs_us/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/microsoft_admits_it_cannot_guarantee/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2acVmNGA_LCb7fpc9_9FCrQAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/18/cispe_sovereignty_washing/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/05/office_eu_suite/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/05/uk_digital_currency/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/31/digital_euro_approved/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/27/canada_court_ovh/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44acVmNGA_LCb7fpc9_9FCrQAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33acVmNGA_LCb7fpc9_9FCrQAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/paasiaas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44acVmNGA_LCb7fpc9_9FCrQAAAMg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/17/switzerland_bgp_alternative/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Too much opportunity to monitor the population and, if use or time limited tokens are implemented, ensure they make the 'right' decisions. Chat Control is back on the agenda, this is the other half of the puzzle for enduring hegemony.
Another boost to the "cashless society" agenda. The control freaks have needed new messaging. Contactless payments isn't an urgency anymore and smartphones are no longer enough of the "new thing."
They won't stop until everyone's ID and money is digitized and forced into phone apps.
The issue isn't a digital settlement system. Those have existed for years. This isn't, AFAICS, pushing it any further, it's just an attempt to wrest back control from the US for EU settlements and good for them. But why AI?
about time
shame the UK government is too dumb & too addicted to throwing £billions to the americans rather than domestic tech, that they've starved for decades...
Maybe I should set up a company hQ'd in india & sell services to govt, would do better than my uk based consultancy
Re: about time
The EU's payment infrastructure has been quite sovereign for decades. It was further accelerated when the US government decided it could seize payments through Belgium-based SWIFT solely because they were denominated in US Dollars (a German chap made a significant payment through SWIFT to a non-American based outside the US through the Belgian-based international payments platform SWIFT but because the US didn't like the recipient and the transaction was in USD they pressured SWIFT to allow the US to seize it) and now most international transactions within Europe no longer use SWIFT. [1]TIPS is where it's at.
The UK is doing something, though, even though it's only for card transactions and they are baby steps: [2]UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative amid Trump fears
[1] https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/target/tips/html/index.en.html
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/16/uk-bank-bosses-plan-visa-mastercard-alternative
soooo...
you say you are going to create your own AI hellscape and a memecoin to boot! I can only imagine how many "accept"/"decline" buttons will need to pushed to use it.
Supply chain?
This is all for show if the service providers can't stand over their supply chain. If they are using non-EU tooling, it just moves the pressure point.
What the duck does a money transfer method have to do with so-called "AI"? It's a money transfer method! It's an entirely deterministic concept, and not even a particularly complicated one!
What are we going to apply "AI" to next? Linear equations? Figuring out the area of triangles? Long division? Hey, check out my calculator - it's got the same four operations as every other calculator, but it has *AI*! What that means? Well, it costs a hundred times as much, the battery runs out after three operations, and the result is often wrong, but apart from that it's just as good as any other calculator.
If you can't use it outside the EU due to privacy, it will be of limited use.
At least you can use your Mastercard- and Visa-backed plastic, and PayPal abroad.
Ironically, there is no inherent privacy in these digital currencies, unlike banknotes. Even crypto can be chased down.
Re: If you can't use it outside the EU due to privacy, it will be of limited use.
This will work fine for EU/EEA users who keep their payments within EU/EEA. This provides rails useful in getting the vast majority of payments out of the hands of foreign companies based in Trumpland.
International travelers usually carry more than one card and that choice is usually more about travel benefits or currency conversion fees than compatibility. Nothing stopping issuers from running on multiple networks or acquirers from routing payments accordingly. Yeah, if you need to pay in Trumpcoins when traveling abroad, this isn't the right answer.
Can sometimes be tricky to build systems which do well with standard use cases if they sprawl into too many exceptions.
You're absolutely correct. When I couldn't match the account number, it was wrong of me to give away all your money to charity. I'll aim to do better next time.
Presumably..
as part of this great EU plan, they are also factoring in laws to prevent these local EU providers from being bought or partially acquired by non-EU companies, right?
I mean, just because its EU based now, it's still relying on private companies, who have owners, or shareholders, and it's not like greedy investors won't swoop on anything that looks like a good deal to make themselves richer.
Re: Presumably..
ECB is hiring consultants to build and maintain it. Yeah, they're probably getting overbilled.
But this stays under the control of the ECB and they've already said that fees are limited to cost recovery. Nobody will be swooping in because it isn't geared for profit. This is basically digital public infrastructure on which companies themselves build. Guessing they structured things that way because of Visa and MasterCard's long history of antitrust and competition controversies.
Re: Presumably..
I would presume that if it's EU-owned when it gets the contract then it must remain EU-owned or the contract would be terminated immediately with penalties to the company.
Re: Presumably..
... but with a single system that people become reliant on, immediate termination would be almost impossible and the companies will know that. Think fujitsu, capita, more capita ... serco ... capita ...
Re: Presumably..
Add in some really stiff penalty clauses that are really poison pills.
"The supplier's beneficial ownership must reside within the EU or EEA"
"In the event of the supplier's beneficial ownership becoming resident outside of the EU or EEA the company will, at its own expense, facilitate, within 24 hours, the transfer of the contract, all data, operational facilities and, if appropriate, premises to another company whose beneficial ownership is within the EU or EEA and TUPE the staff to that company for the nominal sum of 1 Euro" (AKA the cheapest and fastest management buyout in history.)
First?
"If the EU is the first major market to launch a sovereign digital currency then it could spur all sorts of financial innovation and provide a much-needed economic boost to its companies and citizens,"
China started studying a digital currency a decade ago and started rolling it out in 2019. As far as I can tell, it hasn't been revolutionary. But neither has it been problem plagued. I can't think why the Eurosphere wouldn't be able to do the same. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_renminbi
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_renminbi
Re: First?
eCNY hasn't really been used much, either. Whatever problems might appear from mass adoption aren't really surfacing as a small number of digital currency enthusiasts embrace it for mass use.
China intends to roll theirs out more widely, hence making it legal tender, rather than just convertible to such.
"However, the AI boat is still in the harbor and this may be a step towards building an AI-enabled payment system based on European technology complying with EU rules and regulations."
Why? Just Why?