AWS unveils the governance of its European Sovereign Cloud

2025-06-03 · Publisher : AWS · Domain : Cloud & DevOps

AWS details the structure of the future AWS European Sovereign Cloud: a German-law parent and subsidiaries, EU-citizen management and advisory board, a sovereign controls framework (ESC-SRF) and a first region in Brandenburg at the end of 2025.

### Background On 3 June 2025, AWS publishes the governance details of the **AWS European Sovereign Cloud**. The entity is organized around a parent company and three subsidiaries incorporated in Germany; the first region will open in Brandenburg at the end of 2025, with an investment of 7.8 billion euros. ### Key facts - Managing director: Kathrin Renz, a German national and EU resident, legally bound to act in the interest of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. - Advisory board of four EU citizens, including at least one independent director with no ties to Amazon. - Controls framework ESC-SRF (Sovereign Reference Framework): technical, legal and operational controls. - Infrastructure entirely within the EU, physically and logically separate from other AWS regions, with no operational control outside the EU; only employees residing in the EU run day-to-day operations. - Independent security operations center (SOC) led by a European officer, dedicated European certificate authority, ISO/IEC 27001:2013, SOC and BSI C5 attestations. ### Why it matters AWS seeks to meet sovereignty expectations by legally and operationally isolating its European region, with a BSI C5 attestation. The limit remains ownership: the entity stays owned by Amazon.com, which feeds the debate on Cloud Act exposure. Regulated customers will have to compare this model with qualified offers such as SecNumCloud ones, or with Microsoft's and Google's "partnerships". ### Takeaway The governance of the AWS European Sovereign Cloud is set before it opens, but its capital control remains American.

Tags : AWS, Souveraineté, Hyperscaler, Europe, Cloud souverain