Brussels, 30 June 2026 — Against a backdrop of growing geopolitical tensions and a fundamental challenge to European digital autonomy, ETIX, PHOCEA, Thésée Datacenter and Gigas are simultaneously announcing their participation in the CISPE Sovereign and Resilient Cloud Service Certification scheme. All have self-certified cloud services under the Framework and will be allowed to display the CISPE ‘Declared’ service badge as a result for six months. During this time, all have committed to submit their services to independent audit to confirm this certification at which point, on passing, they will be awarded the Certified Badge. This badge is the first digital sovereignty framework based on binding, audited and enforceable criteria.
Europe’s digital autonomy cannot be built without physical infrastructure on which businesses and governments can rely independently. Faced with the growing exposure of critical data to extraterritorial legislation — notably the American CLOUD Act and its equivalents — these operators are taking a decisive step: they voluntarily submit to an independent audit covering their entire sovereignty chain, from servers to shareholding. By certifying the physical layer, they offer European cloud providers the foundation on which to build end-to-end sovereignty, and help federate a coherent, robust and defensible ecosystem.
This initiative forms part of CISPE’s broader strategy to build a genuinely autonomous European cloud ecosystem, capable of meeting the demands of the most sensitive sectors: public administration, healthcare, defence and strategic industry.
“Our clients — public bodies, hospitals, industrial operators — are today seeking concrete guarantees of digital sovereignty. The CISPE Sovereignty Badge provides that guarantee in an audited and enforceable way. It is a natural complement to European standards such as Gaia-X Level 3, strengthening transparency, compliance and digital trust. It is this ability to provide concrete proof, beyond rhetoric, that underpins genuine European digital autonomy.” — Antoine FOURNIER, CEO, Thésée Datacenter
The Sovereignty Certification framework is open to any European operator wishing to contribute to the development of an autonomous digital infrastructure. It is designed to complement existing certifications (ISO 27001, HDS, SecNumCloud, etc.), extending them beyond simple geographic dimensions by adding legal, control and ownership criteria. CISPE oversees the evolution of the framework, the rigour of audits and the integrity of the label.
Commenting on the announcement, CISPE secretary general, Francisco Mingorance, said;
“The CISPE Framework is gaining real traction — vendors and customers alike want a transparent, trustable and auditable way to prove their services are genuinely sovereign. Our dedicated AI tool gives any CSP a fast pre-assessment. With sovereignty washing rife and CADA poised to legitimise much of it, European Cloud Service Providers must act together to build one usable measure that benefits the whole market.”
Cloud service providers should contact sovereignty-framework@cispe.cloud to register interest in the Framework and the pre-assessment AI tool. Alternatively, visit www.sovereignty.cispe.cloud for more information.
