[Trusted Cloud Digest] French Presidency of the European Union: OVHcloud sets out its vision at an international conference focused on digital sovereignty
Digital sovereignty, at the heart of the agenda of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union (1 January - 30 June 2022), took the form of an international conference "Building Europe’s Digital Sovereignty", held on 7 and 8 February 2022. During these two days, there was a single watchword, from major groups to European scale-ups: to innovate without hindrance in order to defend Europe’s position in the global economic landscape, while affirming its strategic autonomy.
Digital sovereignty and fair competition: these are the two pillars on which the European Tech sector must rely and which were on the agenda of this conference. The common will is to move from ideas to action, as demonstrated by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), two draft regulations that should soon restore a more level playing field in the digital markets. The Data Act, which will be presented at the end of February by the European Commission, should also take into account data portability between cloud providers and better regulate the conditions for transferring international data.
In this context, Michel PAULIN, CEO of OVHcloud, spoke at the round table on “A sovereignty that protects: Building an industrial response for data storage in Europe,” alongside the leaders of the National Commission on Informatics and Freedoms (CNIL), the European Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA) and GAIA-X, as well as one of the European Parliament’s leading figures on digital technology.
In this debate, Michel PAULIN was able to reiterate OVHcloud’s position on digital sovereignty: the European Union must establish rules of the game to guarantee the protection of individuals’ and organisations’ data. This includes establishing, at a European level, an ambitious cybersecurity certification that guarantees both data security and legal protection against the transfer of such data outside the European Union.
Representatives of the CNIL and ENISA recognised the importance of such legal certainty for European data.
“Data sovereignty is about protecting data, through the values of Europe. For OVHcloud, there must be no compromise: we are Europeans, we guarantee that local laws are applied", declared Michel PAULIN
OVHcloud continues to be committed to an open, reversible and interoperable cloud, and aims to remain true to the initial promise of the internet: making digital a space for freedom, autonomy and collective innovation. As part of the PFUE, OVHcloud has launched a series of travelling conferences on digital sovereignty in several European capitals, in collaboration with the French consular network. After Berlin and Paris, the next stage of the conference will be in Warsaw on 17 February.