At an Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA) in Ibiza on 2 October 2026, CISPE members voted through a series of governance reforms to strengthen the Association’s independence and sharpen its ability to defend a fair and competitive market for cloud and AI in Europe. The Association also celebrated its 10th Anniversary – a decade during which it has made outsized influence on the sector through its activities and voice on issues of relevance to the cloud in Europe. Changes agreed at this meeting set the foundations for the next 10 years of impact.
Hyperscalers become non-paying Observers
Further cementing CISPE’s European credentials, existing hyperscaler adherent members now become ‘Observers.’ They will pay no membership fees and cease to be members of the General Assembly. This is in addition to the removal of board eligibility and voting rights agreed at the 2025 GA. The change underlines CISPE’s full strategic and financial independence from dominant non-European providers and definitively rebuts any claims to the contrary.
Stronger protection for members in litigation
The governance now explicitly provides for defending members through antitrust and collective-redress action, allowing CISPE to file class-action suits against anti-competitive behaviour. Decisions to accept, reject or settle these cases will be taken by all affected full members – shielding individuals and the Board from pressure by defendants seeking to settle.
Members voted to give the Secretary General signatory powers in litigation matters, so individual Board members are not exposed to retaliation, while ensuring that the interests of all affected members are accounted for and protected.
Backing sovereignty and open source
The reforms reinforce CISPE’s commitment to sovereign and open-source cloud infrastructure in Europe, building on its dedicated Sovereignty Committee of European-headquartered providers.
New board leadership
- Jacqueline van de Werken, global general counsel at Leaseweb, steps down as CISPE President (an office held since 2022), but remains on the Board as CISPE’s first Board Secretary.
- Claudio Abad, CEO of Deda Tech, is elected President of the Board.
- Alexander Windbichler, CEO of Anexia, is elected Vice President.
Jacqueline van de Werken, Board Secretary of CISPE, said: “This Extraordinary General Assembly completes the journey to creating an independent European governance for CISPE. Looking back, we have enjoyed a successful decade of growth, development of effective regulation, and defence of fair competition. Looking forward, our enhanced governance sets the framework for CISPE to continue to represent effectively its members as the regulatory, competitive and commercial environment evolves. As I hand over the reins to our new President, I am pleased to remain on the Board as this exciting time as the first Board Secretary.”
“CISPE has had an enormous impact on the European cloud sector in the last 10 years – from creating the first Code of Conduct for Data Protection to standing-up to the unfair licensing practices of global giants,” said CISPE’s new President, Claudio Abad. “Our role has always been to bring economic and industrial growth to the European marketplace in ways that benefit our members and their customers. Now that role is even more important as we look to the Cloud and AI Development Act, ongoing challenges of sovereignty and new levers of growth including AI. With its European governance and funding, CISPE is uniquely placed to champion the cause of European cloud providers for the next ten years.”