Ribera calls for European public digital infrastructure ahead of sovereignty package
Commission Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera told an S&D conference the EU must build its own public digital infrastructure and core technologies, saying the coming tech sovereignty package should boost European chip output and triple EU cloud capacity.
France Datacenter and iliad hand government 19 proposals to speed data centre build-out
France Datacenter and Groupe iliad, co-chairing a government working group on digital electrification, gave Digital Minister Anne Le Henanff 19 proposals on 12 May 2026: PIINM status for strategic data centres, first-connected-first-served grid access and aligned electricity taxation.
EU defence ministers endorse three-year plan to strengthen European Defence Agency
EU defence ministers meeting as EDA's Steering Board endorsed a three year roadmap strengthening the agency's role in collaborative procurement, innovation and capability development, with targeted recruitment starting in June 2026.
ECIPE warns DMA's Android AI interoperability rule could recentralise the OS
ECIPE's Fredrik Erixon and Dyuti Pandya argue the Commission's DMA interoperability mandate for Android AI assistants, requiring equal access to microphone, screen and cross app control, may force Google to centralise Android rather than open it.
CEPA fellows say DMA's first two years fell short of its aims
CEPA's Anda Bologa and William Echikson argue the Digital Markets Act, two years in, has not delivered meaningful competition gains, instead prompting legal conflict, and that US courts have proved more effective than EU regulators at compelling change from Big Tech.
Thales and ArianeGroup conduct first successful firing of FLP-t 150 strike weapon
Thales and ArianeGroup conducted the first successful firing of the FLP-t 150 long range strike munition, a French sovereign system exceeding 150 kilometres range designed to keep terminal guidance under GNSS jamming, replacing the LRU rocket.
Cyfronet inaugurates Gaia AI supercomputer in Kraków, EU and Poland fund it
Cyfronet AGH inaugurated the Gaia AI Factory in Kraków, a roughly EUR 70 million system with over 1,000 GPU accelerators, funded equally by Poland's government and the EU's EuroHPC Joint Undertaking; full operation is due in 2027.
Rheinmetall and Deutsche Telekom to build a joint drone defence shield
Rheinmetall and Deutsche Telekom agreed to jointly develop a shield against drones and sabotage for German critical infrastructure, pairing Telekom's sensors with Rheinmetall's Skyranger and laser counter-drone systems.
Norway's NTNU joins Italian led EU defence project for autonomous battlefield evacuation
Norway's NTNU joins the European Defence Fund funded SALUBRIS project, led by Italy's IDV (Iveco Defence Vehicles) with Norway's Maritime Robotics and Biodrone, building autonomous multi domain swarms for casualty evacuation and sensor fused triage.
Dassault Aviation and OHB team up to bid VORTEX-S spaceplane to ESA
Dassault Aviation and OHB agreed to jointly bid the VORTEX-S reusable spaceplane to ESA, Dassault as prime architect, OHB building the service module, Trappier says the aim is to strengthen Europe's own space capabilities.
SWP Berlin paper urges Europe prioritise satellite resilience over anti-satellite arms
SWP Berlin's Juliana Süß argues Europe should build resilient, redundant satellite systems rather than anti-satellite weapons, citing weekly Russian jamming and a February 2026 SIGINT operation against Bundeswehr satellites, and points to IRIS2 and SatComBw4.
ECIPE says EU can defend Cybersecurity Act against China's WTO complaint
ECIPE's Hosuk Lee-Makiyama argues the EU can defend its revised Cybersecurity Act against China's WTO objections under the public morals exception, framed around judicial redress that Chinese law structurally excludes for national security cases.
Eindhoven sensor startup eyeo raises EUR40 million Series A from European investors
eyeo, an imec spinout based in Eindhoven with an Antwerp design centre, raised a EUR40 million Series A led by Innovation Industries, an all European syndicate, to build a chip design team and scale its nanophotonic colour splitting image sensor.
Algorithmiq raises EUR18 million and moves headquarters from Helsinki to Milan
Quantum software firm Algorithmiq raised a EUR18 million round led by United Ventures, with Italy's state investment bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti joining, and relocated its global headquarters from Helsinki to Milan while keeping Finnish operations.
Lithuania signs EUR 6.4 billion SAFE loan agreement with the EU for defence
Lithuania's defence and finance ministers signed a SAFE loan agreement worth EUR 6,375,487,000 with EU commissioners Kubilius and Serafin, financing national division defence needs over a 45 year term with a 10 year grace period.
Romania adopts ordinance letting state seize control of strategic defence firms
Romania's government adopted Emergency Ordinance 38/2026 on 4 May 2026, in force from its 8 May publication, letting the state take stakes in or expropriate assets of defence firms declared strategic and fast track related site approvals, as it moves to spend its SAFE loan on domestic industry.
Munich's new coalition agreement makes open source the procurement default
Munich's new "Mango" coalition (Greens/Rosa Liste, SPD, FDP/Free Voters), governing to 2032, agreed to make open source the default for municipal software procurement under a "Public Money, Public Code" principle, strengthening its Open Source Program Office.
OpenForum Europe letter urges von der Leyen to fund EU Sovereign Tech Fund
OpenForum Europe published a joint letter signed by 50 organisations, including Red Hat, SUSE, Mozilla and Mercedes-Benz, urging von der Leyen to back an EU Sovereign Tech Fund for open source maintenance, proposing at least EUR350 million over seven years in the 2028 to 2034 MFF.
Poland signs EUR 43.7 billion SAFE loan agreement with the EU, first to do so
Poland became the first EU country to sign a loan agreement under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) instrument, worth EUR 43.7 billion, signed in Warsaw by Polish ministers and Commissioners Piotr Serafin and Andrius Kubilius to fund defence modernisation.
Vodafone and AWS sign multi-year deal for sovereign cloud in Germany
Vodafone signed a multi-year agreement with AWS to resell and integrate the AWS European Sovereign Cloud region in Brandenburg for German enterprise and public-sector customers, using its Skaylink unit for migration support.
SiPearl and Semidynamics ally on EU sovereign rack scale AI compute platform
Semidynamics and SiPearl announced a strategic cooperation combining SiPearl's Arm based Rhea CPU with Semidynamics' RISC-V AI inference accelerator into an EU sovereign rack scale AI compute platform aimed at EU AI Factory procurement.
Cross-party group of 30 MEPs launches European Defence Union initiative
More than 30 MEPs from the EPP, S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA and Volt groups launched a cross-party initiative pushing for joint EU defence procurement, a genuine defence market and a stronger European pillar in NATO, rejecting Mark Rutte's doubts about European self-defence.
Bundestag committee adopts digital sovereignty strategy, leaves vendor choice open
Germany's Bundestag IT and Digitalisation Commission unanimously adopted a digital strategy for the 21st term: it keeps a Microsoft or Nextcloud choice, watches German providers Delos and Stackit, and sets a pre summer deadline to pick one AI tool for 1,000 to 1,500 users.
EDRi urges lawmakers reject AI Omnibus rollback of AI Act safeguards
EDRi and partner organisations argue the AI Omnibus deal EU institutions sealed on 7 May, framed as technical simplification, delays protections for high risk AI systems, cuts transparency duties and sets a precedent for reopening adopted digital rights law.
DigitalEurope hails AI Omnibus machinery fix but says medtech excluded
DigitalEurope welcomed the AI Omnibus moving machinery to Annex I Section B, avoiding duplicate AI Act checks and saving SMEs about EUR 600,000 in year one costs, but said the deal excludes medical devices, leaving medtech under overlapping AI Act and MDR rules.
CCIA Europe says sealed AI Omnibus deal falls short of simplification
CCIA Europe's Boniface de Champris says EU negotiators' sealed AI Omnibus deal, which extends some AI Act compliance deadlines, rejected dropping non-high-risk system registration and left no grace period for generative AI labelling due by 2 August.
German Earth-observation firm LiveEO raises EUR28 million for defence pivot
German Earth-observation firm LiveEO raised EUR28 million in a first closing led by new defence investor Helantic, to scale what it called sovereign, independent geospatial intelligence for infrastructure protection and defence.
BT and STACKIT partner to open external access to Germany's sovereign cloud
BT International and Schwarz Digits' STACKIT partnered so BT's Global Fabric network carries connectivity into STACKIT's EU based sovereign cloud, letting non-EU multinationals reach it compliantly from outside the bloc for the first time.
CISPE urges EU's ECCO to scrutinise SAP over AI agent API restrictions
CISPE said SAP's new curbs on third party AI agents accessing its APIs risk breaching the Data Act's data portability rules and urged the European Cloud Competition Observatory to investigate the restrictions.
CEPA's Godward: private capital pools could fund Europe's rearmament surge
CEPA's Thomas Godward argues European institutional, Gulf sovereign wealth and US private capital could fund Europe's defence production surge, citing global venture investment into defence rising from USD 0.5 billion in 2022 to USD 4.7 billion in 2025.
Dutch court allows State to renew Solvinity contract despite CLOUD Act fears
The Hague District Court ruled the Dutch State may renew its contract with Solvinity, the DigiD infrastructure operator, before its August deadline, rejecting three citizens' claim that this was unlawful given Solvinity's pending sale to US-owned Kyndryl.
Germany's coalition factions table Bundestag motion on submarine cable diplomacy
Germany's governing CDU/CSU and SPD factions tabled a Bundestag motion calling on the government to strengthen international cable diplomacy, back the EU's Cable Security Toolbox and reduce one-sided dependence on submarine cable operator structures, within existing budget lines.
Digital SME Alliance urges EU-US tech talks not to weaken EU digital rules
Digital SME Alliance said EU-US tech talks must not water down, delay or dilute enforcement of the DMA and DSA, and that dialogue should focus narrowly on protecting minors online rather than reopening EU digital market rules.
CEPA leadership council urges Europe redirect defence budgets to innovation
CEPA's International Leadership Council report urges Europe to spend rising defence budgets on interoperable, AI enabled manufacturing, drones and missiles rather than legacy systems, arguing sovereignty means contributing more within NATO, not autonomy from allies.
CEPA's Khara: Ukraine must pair Western arms with its own strike capability
Oleksandr Khara of Kyiv's Centre for Defence Strategies, writing for CEPA, argues Ukraine must pair Western munitions with its own long range strike, drone and electromagnetic capabilities and deeper joint production with European allies to deter future Russian aggression.
QuantWare raises EUR152 million Series B led by Intel Capital and In-Q-Tel
QuantWare, a Delft quantum processor maker, closed a EUR152 million Series B led by US investors Intel Capital and In-Q-Tel, to build KiloFab, a large open-architecture quantum chip factory in the Netherlands.
Nscale commits EUR695 million to expand its Portugal GPU campus for Microsoft
Nscale, a UK based AI cloud operator, committed EUR695 million to add a second 200 megawatt building at its Start Campus site in Sines, Portugal, to host over 66,000 Nvidia Rubin GPUs sold to Microsoft as capacity from late 2027.
Luxembourg enacts law transposing the EU NIS2 cybersecurity directive
Luxembourg published its Law of 5 May 2026 transposing the EU's NIS2 directive, entering into force on 10 May and binding around 15 sectors to harmonised risk management and incident reporting rules, with fines up to EUR 10 million.
EllaLink lands EU funded subsea cable branch in Mauritania
EllaLink and Mauritania's digital ministry landed a new subsea cable branch at Nouadhibou, an EU Connecting Europe Facility co-funded route giving Mauritania a second path to Europe with multi-terabit scalable capacity.
ECIPE says DMA data sharing order against Google conflicts with GDPR
ECIPE's Fredrik Erixon and Dyuti Pandya argue the Commission's Article 6(11) DMA proceedings, which would order Google to share granular search query and click data with rivals, cannot be reconciled with GDPR anonymisation standards.
CEPA fellow urges Europe choose open interoperability over a EuroStack
CEPA's William Echikson argues Europe should pursue "Open Digital Sovereignty", keeping AI infrastructure's software layer open and interoperable, rather than an isolated EuroStack, citing TCP/IP, Linux and GSM as precedents for open systems driving adoption.
Falcon 9 launch grows Italy's IRIDE fleet, lifts Greece's first fire satellites
A Falcon 9 carried seven more IRIDE satellites, taking Italy's constellation to 31, plus Greece's four satellite Hellenic Fire System and two connectivity CubeSats into orbit on 3 May 2026.
Sentinel-1D becomes fully operational, restoring Europe's radar Earth observation
ESA declared Sentinel-1D fully operational, restoring the two satellite C band radar constellation for the Copernicus programme lost when Sentinel-1B failed in 2021, giving Europe continuous all weather day and night Earth observation again.
Dutch spinout Groove Quantum raises EUR 16 million for spin qubit chips
Delft spinout Groove Quantum raised EUR 16 million, EUR 10 million equity led by Innovation Industries and 55 North plus EUR 6 million in EIC and Chips Act grants, after building an 18 qubit germanium processor, to scale toward 100 qubits and foundry manufacturing.
Arianespace launches 32 more Amazon Leo satellites on Ariane 6 heavy variant
Arianespace launched 32 Amazon Leo satellites on the four booster Ariane 64 from Kourou on 30 April, the second of 18 contracted launches for Amazon's constellation, taking satellites deployed by Ariane 6 to 64 and proving the heavy variant's reliability.
CEPA op-ed flags foreign ownership risk to UK defence mobilisation
CEPA's Phil Tinline writes Britain's Strategic Defence Review would let the state mobilise private and commercial assets in a crisis, but asks how much UK defence industry sits in foreign ownership, noting rising European wariness of reliance on US arms contracts.
CEPA adviser says Europe still lacks rules for who pays when AI harms
CEPA's Kai Zenner, adviser to MEP Axel Voss, argues that after the Commission withdrew its AI Liability Directive, fragmented national tort rules let developers shift risk onto users, and calls for a unified EU regime with lighter evidentiary burdens for victims.
CEPA fellow says Europe is reactive as it sets AI rules of engagement
CEPA's Elly Rostoum writes that Germany's BSI is in active dialogue with Anthropic over security risks and the Commission is weighing whether its Mythos model is high risk under the AI Act, arguing Europe must compete with China without abandoning its values.
ECIPE says Cybersecurity Act 2 mostly legalises existing 5G vendor bans
ECIPE's Hosuk Lee-Makiyama argues Cybersecurity Act 2 mostly formalises 5G Toolbox decisions states already made, noting 70 per cent of installed EU 5G equipment is from trusted vendors and just seven or eight parent firms control networks still exposed to Chinese kit.
CEPA op-ed proposes new European Security Council outside the EU
CEPA's Niccolo Comini proposes a European Security Council outside the EU, with two thirds supermajority voting and no permanent seats, so Kremlin-aligned states cannot block action and Europe can decide without depending on Washington.
EU Commission and EDA sign EUR 35 million BraveTech EU funding agreement
The European Commission and European Defence Agency signed a Contribution Agreement funding EDA EUR 35 million for BraveTech EU's second phase, testing rapid defence innovations drawn from lessons of the war in Ukraine.
Germany's AI commission urges EUR 300 billion sovereign fund for AI
Germany's Expert Commission on Competition and AI, chaired by Rupprecht Podszun, Schwarz Digits CEO Rolf Schumann and Sebastian Thrun, handed ministers Reiche and Wildberger a report urging a EUR 300 billion "Deutsches Zukunftskapital" fund for AI infrastructure.
France notifies the ITU that Iris2 frequencies are now in active use
French spectrum agency ANFR notified the ITU that the FMS-LEO frequencies reserved for Iris2 have been put into use, via a Eutelsat OneWeb satellite operating in an Iris2 designated orbital slot, securing the constellation's frequency rights under ITU rules.
EuroHPC opens EUR 25 million call to coordinate Europe's AI Factories
EuroHPC JU opened call HORIZON-JU-EUROHPC-2026-COAIF-03, an indicative EUR 25 million budget for consortia to coordinate AI Factories and Antennas and build a European federated web data service, proposals due 23 June 2026.
EU Commission concludes first Digital Markets Act review, flags cloud and AI
The Commission concluded its first Digital Markets Act review, finding the law fit for purpose with no legislative change needed now, citing gains in data portability, browser and search choice, and naming cloud computing and AI as priority enforcement areas.
CCIA Europe calls Commission's first DMA evaluation an unbalanced picture
CCIA Europe's Daniel Friedlaender says the Commission's first DMA evaluation understates degraded user experience and higher SME costs, calling enforcement a procedural black box while backing the Commission's evidence based approach to interoperability.
Bundeswehr rules out Palantir for military cloud, tests three EU rivals
Bundeswehr Cyber and Information Domain Service inspector Vice Admiral Thomas Daum told Handelsblatt Palantir is "not being considered at all" for the military's planned private cloud; Germany's Almato, Orcrist and ChapsVision face testing from summer 2026.
Germany's BSI publishes C3A criteria to measure cloud sovereignty
Germany's BSI published C3A (Criteria enabling Cloud Computing Autonomy), a catalogue letting agencies and firms test whether a cloud service can be used self-determinedly, building on its C5 security standard, with optional Germany or EU data-residency requirements.
Belgium adopts revised national cyber crisis response plan by royal decree
Belgium adopted a revised national cyber crisis response plan by royal decree, setting out how the CCB and the National Crisis Centre coordinate response to major cyber incidents, aligned with the NIS2 directive and EU level crisis coordination.
SAP joins France's S3NS trusted cloud, with Thales as first customer
SAP agreed to deploy its Sovereign Cloud onto S3NS, the Thales led, SecNumCloud qualified French platform, with Thales itself as first customer migrating its ERP by the second half of 2026, keeping data under French jurisdiction.
Bundeswehr orders EUR 1.04 billion more Rheinmetall digital soldier systems
Germany's BAAINBw placed a EUR 1.04 billion call off order with Rheinmetall for 237 more IdZ-ES digital soldier systems, equipping 8,600 more soldiers under a EUR 3.1 billion framework running to 2030.
Google led consortium's legal challenge stalls German sovereign cloud award
A Google and Adesso consortium filed a procurement complaint contesting Germany's provisional award of a EUR 249.6 million, four year sovereign cloud tender to Deutsche Telekom and SAP, stalling the federal government's sovereignty weighted award.
EIC selects eight European deep tech startups for EUR 146.5 million scale up
The EIC selected eight deep tech startups, including France's quantum firm Alice & Bob and Bulgaria's Endurosat, for STEP Scale Up equity tickets of EUR 10 million to 30 million, totalling up to EUR 146.5 million.
Dutch government signs cloud framework deal with Germany's STACKIT
The Netherlands' Ministry of Justice and Security signed a framework agreement making STACKIT, owned by Germany's Schwarz Digits (Lidl's parent group), the Dutch government's official alternative to AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.
Canada's Cohere agrees to acquire Germany's Aleph Alpha, Schwarz invests EUR 500 million
Canada's Cohere agreed to acquire Germany's Aleph Alpha, with Germany's Schwarz Group investing EUR 500 million into Cohere's Series E; the deal needs shareholder and regulatory approval and leaves Cohere as majority owner.
ArianeGroup chief Bruneau says firm is studying missile production in Germany
ArianeGroup chief executive Christophe Bruneau told Les Echos and Handelsblatt the company is studying conventional ballistic missile production in Germany, saying he still believes in French German cooperation "more than ever" despite fighter and tank programme setbacks.
Paris satellite start-up Univity raises EUR 27 million to rival Starlink
Paris based Univity raised a EUR 27 million Series A backed by Bpifrance's Deeptech 2030 fund, taking total funding past EUR 67 million, to build very low orbit satellite links letting European telecom operators resell space connectivity instead of relying on Starlink.
CISPE launches Verifiably Sovereign badge framework, more than 40 services certified
CISPE, the European cloud infrastructure providers' association, launched an auditable Verifiably Sovereign framework with sovereign and resilient badges to certify cloud offerings, with more than 40 services declaring compliance at launch.
CEPA fellow Nico Lange urges EU quota for sovereign defence technology
CEPA senior fellow and IRIS director Nico Lange argues Europe must earmark at least 10 percent of defence procurement for disruptive, sovereign technologies, rising to 30 percent by 2030, saying the US is no longer Europe's automatic security backbone.
CCIA Europe calls for a DMA reality check ahead of gatekeeper law review
CCIA Europe's Daniel Friedlaender and Maria Teresa Stecher call DMA compliance a guessing game, citing compressed timelines and no oral hearings, and warn procedural gaps could see Commission decisions annulled by the Court of Justice.
France picks Scaleway over Microsoft to host its Health Data Hub
France's Health Data Hub named French cloud firm Scaleway, chosen through a UGAP public cloud procurement, as its future host, ending its use of Microsoft Azure under DINUM's cloud sovereignty doctrine. No contract value was disclosed.
Schwarz Digits says Dutch central bank to move to STACKIT sovereign cloud
At Hannover Messe, Schwarz Digits said it had agreed with De Nederlandsche Bank to migrate workplace technology to its STACKIT cloud; DNB neither confirmed nor denied it, citing its own 2024 warning on banks' reliance on non-European IT suppliers.
ECIPE policy brief urges a more proportional and predictable DMA
ECIPE's Andrea Dugo, Fredrik Erixon and Dyuti Pandya publish a policy brief saying DMA enforcement has drifted from its competition goals, recommending clearer objectives, stronger evidence standards and closer alignment with GDPR and cybersecurity rules.
EuroHPC signs EUR 290 million Dell and E4 contract for Italy's AI factory
EuroHPC signed a EUR 290 million contract with Dell Technologies and Italy's E4 Computer Engineering to build the IT4LIA AI factory at CINECA, Bologna, on Nvidia GB200 hardware with French SiPearl CPUs, split evenly with Italy's research ministry.
German start-up ATMOS Space Cargo raises EUR 25.7 million for orbital return craft
German start-up ATMOS Space Cargo closed a EUR 25.7 million Series A, led by Balnord and Expansion Ventures with EIC Accelerator participation, to build what it calls Europe's first routine orbital return infrastructure.
Dutch quantum sensing firm OrangeQS extends seed round to EUR 15 million
Delft based OrangeQS extended its seed round to EUR 15 million with new backing from the European Innovation Council Fund, and launched the OrangeQS MAX partnership programme with chipmakers Rigetti, QuantWare and Peak Quantum to scale quantum chip testing.
EuroHPC signs EUR 29.8 million Bull contract for Sweden's Mimer AI factory
EuroHPC signed a EUR 29.8 million contract with French vendor Bull to build the Mimer AI Factory supercomputer at NAISS, Linköping University, split evenly between EuroHPC and Sweden's Research Council, deployment starting in 2026.
Spain's Arkadia Space to supply propulsion for Dassault's VORTEX-D spaceplane
Spain's Arkadia Space will supply ARIEL thruster propulsion for the reaction control system of Dassault Aviation's VORTEX-D reusable spaceplane demonstrator, a Spanish-French link in Europe's own spaceplane effort.
Rheinmetall Kraken starts series production of unmanned naval vessels
Rheinmetall Kraken GmbH began series production of its Kraken K3 Scout unmanned surface vessel at the former Blohm and Voss site in Hamburg, with initial capacity of about 200 units a year, scalable to 1,000.
Dutch firm Volt announces 800 megawatt AI Gigafactory plan for Rotterdam port
Dutch AI infrastructure firm Volt announced an "AI Gigafactory" of up to 800 megawatts at the Port of Rotterdam, partnered with energy firm Eneco for North Sea wind power, with construction potentially starting in 2027.
Think tank finds 23 of 28 European states rely on US cloud for defence
Brussels think tank Future of Technology Institute found 23 of 28 European countries use US cloud providers in national defence systems, with 16, including Germany and Poland, at high risk of a US CLOUD Act "kill switch".
Poland launches PLN 22.5 billion Chrobry fund for defence investment
Poland's MFiPR and state bank BGK launched the Chrobry company with PLN 22.5 billion (about EUR 5.3 billion) from Recovery Plan funds, as loans and equity for defence, cyber and dual use infrastructure investment.
EU Commission awards EUR 180 million sovereign cloud contract to four EU firms
The European Commission awarded up to EUR 180 million over six years to four EU-based providers, Post Telecom with OVHcloud and CleverCloud, STACKIT, Scaleway, and Proximus with S3NS, to host EU institutions' cloud workloads at or above SEAL-2 sovereignty assurance.
Codasip's RISC-V design sale to a US buyer threatens EU chip project DARE
Czech chip designer Codasip sold its RISC-V design business, including its Codasip Studio tooling, to an undisclosed US listed semiconductor firm, threatening the EUR 240 million DARE programme's plan to build a European high end RISC-V processor.
EU opens EUDIS accelerator call, EUR 120,000 per firm for 20 defence start-ups
DG DEFIS opened the EUDIS Defence Business Accelerator call, offering a EUR 120,000 seed funding voucher to each of twenty selected European start-ups and scale-ups across six defence technology themes, with the programme starting September 2026.
AMD and France sign letter of intent on Alice Recoque supercomputer access
AMD and French ministers Baptiste, Martin and Le Hénanff signed a letter of intent in Paris on 16 April 2026 to deepen support for France's AI strategy, including a planned AMD Centre of Excellence to help GENCI, the Jules Verne Consortium and CEA harness the Alice Recoque exascale supercomputer.
ECIPE paper says Europe's space policy still favours legacy champions
ECIPE authors Andrea Dugo and Dyuti Pandya write Europe made 8 orbital launches in 2025 against the US's 181, its space patent share fell from 11 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2023, and EU space startups average USD 48 million funding against USD 317 million in the US.
NASA to launch ESA's Rosalind Franklin Mars rover on SpaceX Falcon Heavy
NASA confirmed it will launch ESA's Rosalind Franklin Mars rover on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Florida no earlier than late 2028, the launch service NASA owes ESA because Europe has no equivalent heavy lift launcher of its own.
German antitrust regulator clears Rheinmetall-OHB satellite joint venture
Germany's Bundeskartellamt cleared a joint venture between Rheinmetall Digital and OHB to jointly bid for a Bundeswehr military satellite communications contract, with OHB covering the space segment and Rheinmetall the user and network segment.
Airbus taps SEGULA to build and test Eutelsat's OneWeb satellites in Toulouse
Airbus named French engineering firm SEGULA Technologies to run assembly, integration and testing of Eutelsat's OneWeb satellites on a Toulouse line, extending Europe's only operational low orbit constellation ahead of IRIS2.
Romania opens search for consortium leader to build Black Sea AI Gigafactory
Romania's Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance, with ADR as coordinating authority, opened an expression of interest to preselect a consortium leader for the Black Sea AI Gigafactory, an initial phase of about 20,000 GPUs, submissions due 14 June 2026.
Dutch parliament approves Cyberbeveiligingswet transposing the NIS2 directive
The Dutch Tweede Kamer approved the Cyberbeveiligingswet transposing NIS2, adding an Article 21a power letting the minister bar entities from suppliers posing a direct national security risk, subject to safeguards and transition periods.
ESA hires Canada's Kepler to lead EUR 18.6 million laser comms element
ESA signed a EUR 18.6 million contract for Element 3 of its HydRON laser communications demonstration, led by Canada's Kepler Communications with European partners Vyoma, Astrolight, Tesat and Mbryonics, announced at the 41st Space Symposium.
EDA's 2025 annual report tallies EUR 558 million in capability projects
EDA's 2025 annual report said it supported 87 capability and research projects worth EUR 558 million and 42 European Defence Fund initiatives worth over EUR 300 million, and warned that the EU is no longer in a permissive security environment.
SWP Berlin paper says EU pursues open strategic autonomy in tech policy
SWP Berlin's edited research paper on the "geoeconomic Zeitenwende" says the EU's pursuit of "open strategic autonomy" in digital and technology policy should reduce dependence through market completion, regulation and allied partnerships, not isolationist decoupling.
Cubbit, SUSE, Elemento and StorPool launch an all-European disaster recovery cloud package
Cubbit, SUSE, Elemento Cloud and StorPool Storage launched a joint Sovereign Disaster Recovery Pack combining only European storage, compute and networking components, already deployed by an Italian IT service provider.
EDRi says EU Digital Omnibus risks weakening GDPR and AI Act safeguards
EDRi's Itxaso Dominguez de Olazabal and Chiara Casati write that the EU's Digital Omnibus, framed as simplification, would weaken GDPR, ePrivacy and AI Act safeguards by shifting to corporate self-assessment.
DigitalEurope rejects US Section 301 overcapacity claims against EU tech industry
DigitalEurope, representing 56,000 companies, told the US Section 301 overcapacity probe there is no evidence of EU economywide overcapacity, warning broad tariffs would damage transatlantic semiconductor, cloud and AI cooperation.
EuroHPC launches Federation Platform for single access to EU supercomputers
EuroHPC released the Federation Platform, built by CSC, IT4Innovations, Tartu, Ghent, GEANT and NORDUnet, giving researchers and firms single sign on access across Europe's 12 deployed supercomputers, with AI factory and quantum links planned.
EU Commission commits EUR 1.07 billion to 57 European Defence Fund projects
The Commission will invest EUR 1.07 billion in 57 European Defence Fund projects across 26 member states and Norway, backing drone defence, air shield and space shield flagships; grant agreements are still pending signature.
ESA and Canada sign agreement to share classified space security information
ESA director general Josef Aschbacher and Canadian Space Agency president Lisa Campbell signed a General Security of Information Agreement at the Space Symposium, framing exchange of classified data on space surveillance, disaster response and security technologies.
Digital Realty to invest EUR 2 billion in Italian data centres, buys Milan land
US REIT Digital Realty said it will invest EUR 2 billion in Italian data centres over five years, with a 62 megawatt Rome campus due in 2027 and an 84 megawatt Milan site, after paying EUR 56.5 million for two land parcels near Milan.
ECIPE warns DMA interoperability rules clash with GDPR and cybersecurity law
ECIPE's Fredrik Erixon and Andrea Dugo argue DMA interoperability mandates override GDPR data protection defaults and widen gatekeeper systems' attack surface, warning the EU's shift to prescriptive digital rules is creating unmanageable regulatory conflicts.
CEPA asks who will control Europe's AI driven shopping carts
CEPA's Padraig Nolan warns that US built AI models from OpenAI, Google and Meta will shape agentic commerce even where payments run on European instant payment and open banking rails, urging Europe to set agent authorisation rules rather than mandates.
Germany's Quantum Systems forms two more joint ventures with Ukraine
Germany's Quantum Systems formed joint ventures Quantum WIY Industries and Quantum Tencore Industries with Ukrainian partners WIY Drones and Tencore, to build interceptor drones and unmanned ground systems.
France makes SecNumCloud or EUCS qualification mandatory for State data hosting
France's Decree No. 2026-272 makes SecNumCloud or equivalent EUCS qualification mandatory for cloud providers hosting the State's most sensitive data, covering named administrations and six public-interest groupings, two years after the SREN law required it.
EuroHPC inaugurates Quandela's Lucy quantum computer at France's TGCC site
EuroHPC inaugurated Lucy, a 12 qubit photonic quantum computer built by France's Quandela and Germany's attocube, integrated with the Joliot Curie supercomputer at TGCC. Cost EUR 8.5 million, split evenly between EuroHPC and France.
Bulgaria renews EUR 210 million EIF fund for high tech and defence firms
Bulgaria renewed its JEREMIE mandate with the European Investment Fund through 2035, making EUR 210 million in equity, loans and guarantees available for microelectronics, AI, quantum, space and dual use firms.
Accenture and Google Cloud open sovereign AI innovation centre in Brussels
Accenture and Google Cloud opened a Sovereign Cloud and AI Innovation Center in Brussels, an air gapped Google Distributed Cloud site where governments and regulated sectors can test AI workloads under sovereignty and compliance requirements.
ESA opens EUR 1 million call to define crew launch abort demonstrator
ESA opened a EUR 1 million System Level Definition phase call on 10 April 2026 for a Crew Launch Abort Demonstrator, baselined on Ariane 6 from Kourou's ELA4 pad, a first step towards a European crewed capsule capability.
CEPA analyst says quantum era is already here, not a future promise
Beacon Global Strategies' Alicia Chavy writes in CEPA that quantum is already operational, not future, citing Europe's EuroQCI network and national crypto agility duties ahead of a 2035 post-quantum migration deadline.
EU Council approves EUR 17.15 billion SAFE defence loans for Czechia and France
The Council of the EU cleared SAFE loans of EUR 17.15 billion for Czechia (EUR 2.06 billion) and France (EUR 15.09 billion) to fund defence procurement, with no equipment or suppliers yet chosen.
OVHcloud launches Defence vertical and AI Lab alongside record H1 results
OVHcloud reported H1 FY26 revenue of EUR 555.3 million and a record 40.9 percent EBITDA margin, and said it is building a dedicated Defence vertical for European ministries and has launched an AI Lab founded on its acquisition of Dragon LLM.
EU Commission marks one year of AI Continent Action Plan with two reports
Marking one year of its AI Continent Action Plan, the Commission published two new reports, on AI adoption in public administration and on trust in AI policymaking, and tallied 19 operational AI factories and 76 gigafactory expressions of interest across 16 member states.
EU clears EUR 211 million Italian state aid for CamGraPhIC photonic transceivers
The Commission cleared EUR 211 million of Italian state aid for CamGraPhIC, a Pisa and Bergamo based firm building graphene photonic transceivers for data centre interconnects, aimed at cutting reliance on non European optical component suppliers.
Poland's FENG committee backs EUR 30 million shift to Horizon Europe
Poland's FENG Monitoring Committee approved shifting EUR 30 million from ERDF regional funds to Horizon Europe co-funding, to back Polish ERC and EIC Accelerator bids rated excellent but left unfunded, pending Cabinet and EC approval.
ECIPE says DMA enforcement is redesigning markets, not restoring competition
ECIPE's Fredrik Erixon and Dyuti Pandya say DMA enforcement now reshapes product design rather than remedying anticompetitive conduct, pointing to a Google Maps case where compliance changes raised map search queries by over 20 per cent, benefiting Google itself.
Germany opens funding competition for error corrected quantum computers
Germany's research ministry opened a funding competition for domestic quantum computer hardware and pilot manufacturing, grants of EUR 20 million to 55 million per project, aiming for two error corrected European class machines by 2030.
France's DINUM orders every ministry to cut non-European tech dependencies
DINUM held an interministerial seminar ordering every French ministry to file a plan cutting non-European tech dependencies by autumn 2026. DINUM begins moving its own workstations from Windows to Linux; CNAM shifts 80,000 agents to sovereign collaboration tools.
ESA's Celeste satellite sends Europe's first low orbit navigation signal
ESA's Celeste IOD-1 CubeSat, built by GMV and Alen Space with Thales Alenia Space and over 50 entities from 14 countries, sent Europe's first dual frequency navigation signal from low Earth orbit, testing a Galileo resilience layer.
Germany commissions SAP and Telekom to build central citizen app
Germany's Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation commissioned SAP and Deutsche Telekom, via an existing federal framework agreement, to build a central AI based citizen app, with T-Systems running the cloud infrastructure and Schwarz Digits integrating the open source Wire messenger.
Commission proposes extending EUSPA's mandate to run EU space policy to 2034
The Commission proposed a Regulation extending EUSPA's mandate, to be renamed as the agency implementing the EU's space systems and policy, covering 2028 to 2034 under the European Competitiveness Fund, pending adoption by Parliament and Council.
Greece contracts Israel's Elbit Systems for USD 750 million PULS rockets
Israel's Elbit Systems won a USD 750 million (EUR 650 million) contract to supply PULS rocket artillery to Greece's armed forces over four years, with local production and technology transfer to Greek industry.
Commission proposes unlocking EUR 45 billion for Ukraine, eases drone rules
The Commission proposed a Council Implementing Decision to unlock up to EUR 45 billion for Ukraine in 2026 under the EUR 90 billion Ukraine Support Loan, and eased procurement derogations to speed Ukrainian drone production, pending Council adoption.
CEPA fellows say EU Space Act cannot close Europe's launch capability gap
CEPA fellows Federico Borsari and Maria-Doriana Gheorghe argue the EU Space Act, replacing 13 national laws, chiefly binds Starlink while exempting Galileo and IRIS2, yet leaves Europe far behind Starlink's fleet of over 7,000 satellites.
EU Chips Act consortium launches EUR 50 million SPINS pilot line for quantum chips
Imec led a 25 partner consortium across nine EU states in launching the SPINS pilot line, EUR 50 million from the EU Chips Joint Undertaking and national funders, to industrialise spin qubit chip manufacturing on 300mm CMOS lines.
ESA awards Redwire a contract to build its QKDSat quantum secure satellite
ESA awarded US owned Redwire a contract to build its Hammerhead spacecraft, at Redwire's Belgian facility, for the QKDSat quantum key distribution demonstration under the ARTES programme; contract value was not disclosed.
CISPE and industry peers warn Italy's cloud levy risks fragmenting EU market
CISPE, EuroISPA and the European DIGITAL SME Alliance jointly warned that Italy's new copyright levy on cloud storage, charged per gigabyte and per user, undermines EU digitalisation and competitiveness goals and could fragment the Single Market if copied elsewhere.
CEPA says EU Inc falls short of Europe's Delaware moment for startups
CEPA's Anda Bologa argues the Commission's EU Inc proposal, offering fast, low cost registration for standardised startups, leaves cross border hiring, tax and bankruptcy law fragmented across 27 states, calling it incremental, not a unifying regime.
GCAP Agency awards Edgewing GBP 686 million first joint fighter contract
The GCAP Agency placed a GBP 686 million contract with Edgewing, the UK-Italy-Japan joint venture, for design and engineering work on the sixth-generation fighter, the programme's first joint international contract.
Seven Dutch IT firms form Open Cloud Alliance to challenge US cloud giants
Centric, Info Support, Intermax, KPN, Nebul, Previder and Uniserver formed the Open Cloud Alliance on 1 April 2026, offering the Dutch government cloud platforms under Dutch and European jurisdiction to cut reliance on non-European providers.
EIC awards EUR 118 million to 30 breakthrough research projects
The European Innovation Council awarded EUR 118 million in Pathfinder Challenges grants to 30 early stage research projects, chosen from 647 proposals, spanning AI diagnostics, robotics and climate resilient crops.
Germany still undecided on Palantir analysis software for BKA
Germany's federal government confirmed it has still not decided on procuring Palantir analysis software for the BKA, citing constitutional and AI Act concerns, and is instead developing modular in-house analysis capabilities under the federal-state Programme P20.
UK competition watchdog opens Microsoft probe, wins cloud fee pledges
The UK Competition and Markets Authority opened a strategic market status investigation into Microsoft's business software ecosystem starting in May 2026, and secured commitments from Microsoft and Amazon on cloud data egress fees and interoperability.
Nebius to build 310 megawatt AI data centre in Finland
Nebius, the Amsterdam headquartered, Nasdaq listed AI infrastructure company, said it will build a 310 megawatt AI data centre in Lappeenranta, Finland, its tenth site and largest outside the United States.
EDA to coordinate EUR 50 million joint qualification of 155mm shells
EDA will coordinate a EUR 50 million Joint Ammunition Qualification programme funded under EDIP, starting with 155mm shells, so ammunition tested in one of the 27 member states need not be re-tested elsewhere.
Bitdeer engages Norwegian contractor for 180 megawatt AI data centre
Singapore based Bitdeer engaged Norwegian contractor Data Center Installations to finish its 180 megawatt Tydal AI data centre in Trondelag, built for Nvidia hardware and run entirely on hydroelectric power, targeted for completion in December 2026.
CEPA's Axe says Iran war exposes Europe's costly, porous air defences
CEPA's David Axe says Europe's reliance on USD 100 million Eurofighter Typhoon sorties and USD 1 million missiles against USD 50,000 Shahed style drones is unsustainable, urging Ukraine style layered, low cost interceptor defences.
Mistral AI raises USD 830 million debt for Paris AI data centre
Mistral AI secured USD 830 million in debt from a seven-bank French and European consortium to build a data centre at Bruyeres-le-Chatel near Paris with 13,800 Nvidia GPUs, targeting 200 megawatts of capacity across Europe by 2027.
EU Commission adopts EUR 1.5 billion EDIP work programme for defence industry
The Commission adopted a EUR 1.5 billion EDIP work programme for 2026 to 2027, including EUR 325 million to seed future European Defence Projects of Common Interest; calls for proposals, open also to Norway and Ukraine, opened on 31 March.
ESA launches first Celeste satellites to test LEO layer complementing Galileo
ESA launched the first two Celeste satellites, built by Spain's GMV and France's Thales Alenia Space, to test a low Earth orbit layer complementing Galileo; 11 satellites are planned by 2027 across over 50 firms in 14 countries.
EuroStack paper urges Europe to organise demand, not just fund supply
EuroStack Initiative argues EU industrial policy over relies on supply side subsidy and must organise demand pull, coordinated public and corporate buying of European digital infrastructure, to build a sovereign stack.
EuroHPC opens EUR 25 million tender for Ireland's CASPIr supercomputer
EuroHPC JU opened a EUR 25 million tender to procure CASPIr, a mid-range Irish supercomputer exceeding 15 petaflops, funded 35 percent by the Digital Europe Programme and 65 percent by Ireland, with bids due by 5 May 2026.
Microsoft opens Denmark East cloud region after USD 4,500 million pledge
Microsoft opened its Denmark East cloud region across Hoje Taastrup, Koge and Roskilde, part of a planned USD 4,500 million four year investment, its largest in Denmark's history, backed by a 130 megawatt renewable power deal.
CEPA's Cytera says Ireland and Vietnam cut chip supply chain reliance on China
CEPA's Christopher Cytera argues that Ireland's chip design strength and Vietnam's packaging role make transatlantic semiconductor supply chains cheaper, safer and less dependent on China, even as Vietnam targets 50,000 design engineers by 2030.
EU Commission proposes EUR 17.15 billion in SAFE loans for Czechia and France
The European Commission completed its technical assessment of Czechia's and France's SAFE national investment plans and proposed to the Council loans of EUR 2.06 billion and EUR 15.09 billion respectively; Council adoption and first payments were slated for April.
Norway and Iceland sign agreement to join EU's IRIS2 and GOVSATCOM
The EU signed an agreement admitting Norway and Iceland to its GOVSATCOM secure satellite communications service and the IRIS2 constellation programme, extending both EU-run systems to two more European states outside the Union.
France's state cloud spend hits EUR 84 million, 70 percent to EU providers
France's interministerial cloud market recorded EUR 84 million in 2025 orders, up 62 percent, with 70 percent going to European providers such as Bleu, S3NS, OVHcloud, NumSpot, Scaleway, Outscale and Mistral AI under the Cloud au centre doctrine.
Finland halts election platform's move to Amazon Web Services
Finland's Ministry of Justice shelved a 2025 decision to migrate its election platform, covering candidate lists, voter registers and vote counting, to Amazon Web Services, citing the US Cloud Act and keeping data on domestic servers through the 2027 election.
Sparkle signs reseller deal to offer Anthropic's Claude via AWS Bedrock
Italy's Sparkle signed a reseller agreement to offer Anthropic's Claude models via Amazon Bedrock to European institutions and enterprises, bundling the US AI service with its own connectivity and multicloud portfolio.