EuroCloud Catalogue

Summary The EuroCloud Catalogue, established under Article 34(3)(a) of the proposed Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA), is a centralised directory listing public sector data centre services and cloud computing services available for sharing among members of the EuroCloud Federation. Its primary purpose is to provide visibility into idle or underutilised infrastructure capacity held by Union entities and Member State public bodies, facilitating the exchange of these resources. It is fundamentally distinct from the EU Open Source Solutions Catalogue (Article 43), which lists reusable software code. While the EuroCloud Catalogue answers "where can we host?", the OSS Catalogue answers "what software can we run?".

Detail

The Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA), as proposed in COM(2026) 502 final, introduces a mechanism to interconnect national and European cloud initiatives to create a resilient, sovereign public-sector ecosystem. This mechanism is the EuroCloud Federation, established by Article 34. The Federation is designed to bring together Union entities (EU institutions, bodies, offices, and agencies) and public sector bodies from Member States to share highly trusted and secure cloud capabilities.

To make this sharing operational and transparent, the Commission is mandated to establish a dedicated platform. Article 34(3) explicitly requires this platform to provide, at a minimum, two distinct components:

1. A catalogue providing information on available public sector data centre services and cloud computing services (Article 34(3)(a)).
2. A service platform for the exchange and orchestration of computing, storage, and network resources and services (Article 34(3)(b)).

The Role of the Catalogue (Article 34(3)(a))

The catalogue described in Article 34(3)(a) serves as the discovery layer of the Federation. It is not a marketplace for commercial transactions but a visibility tool for public-sector cooperation. Its function is to list the specific infrastructure and services that member entities have agreed to make available for sharing.

The scope of the catalogue is strictly defined by the text of the proposal:

• Data Centre Services: This includes physical infrastructure capabilities such as colocation space, power, cooling, and other facility-level resources that can be shared.
• Cloud Computing Services: This covers virtualised resources, including compute, storage, and networking, that are available for cross-border or cross-agency use.

By centralising this information, the catalogue addresses a critical fragmentation issue. Without it, a public body in one Member State facing a capacity shortage would have no efficient way to identify spare capacity available in another jurisdiction. The catalogue enables "visibility of what members can share," allowing entities to identify potential partners for resource sharing without conducting lengthy, bilateral market research.

Purpose and Functionality

The primary purpose of the catalogue is to support the sharing of public sector data centre services and cloud computing services between Union entities and public sector bodies, as outlined in Article 34(2). This sharing is not an open market activity; it is governed by strict conditions set out in Articles 35 and 36 of CADA.

Key functional aspects include:

• Voluntary Participation: Participation in the EuroCloud Federation is voluntary (Article 34(1)). Entities must request the Commission to join. Upon acceptance and verification of their capabilities, their available services can be listed in the catalogue.
• Standardised Information: While the specific data fields and technical templates are to be detailed in future implementing acts (Article 34(4)), the catalogue will standardise how services are described to ensure comparability across different national systems.
• Facilitating Cooperation: The catalogue supports CADA's broader objective to reduce dependencies on third-country providers by maximising the use of existing, trusted European public sector infrastructure. It helps balance capacity across the Union, preventing scenarios where one region has idle capacity while another faces critical shortages.

Distinction from the EU Open Source Solutions Catalogue

It is crucial to distinguish the EuroCloud Catalogue from the EU Open Source Solutions Catalogue (EU OSS Catalogue) established under Article 43 of CADA. Confusing these two instruments would lead to significant operational errors in public procurement and IT strategy.

While both catalogues aim to increase efficiency and reduce costs within the public sector, they operate in entirely different domains. The EuroCloud Catalogue deals with the physical and virtual environment in which software runs (the "cloud"), whereas the OSS Catalogue deals with the code itself. An entity might use the EuroCloud Catalogue to find shared cloud infrastructure and then use the OSS Catalogue to find open-source software to deploy on that infrastructure.

Governance and Access

The catalogue is part of a platform established and maintained by the Commission. Access to the platform and the catalogue is restricted to members of the EuroCloud Federation. Article 35 specifies that participation is limited to public entities; direct private participation is excluded unless specific conditions regarding control and ownership are met (e.g., intermediate legal entities where the public body exercises decisive influence and no private capital participation exists).

The Commission assesses requests to join the federation and verifies that the sharing entity fulfils the necessary technical, operational, and organisational measures (Article 35(2) and (4)). Only after this assessment can the entity's services be included in the catalogue for sharing. Furthermore, Article 36 establishes that the costs of administering the Federation, including the platform and catalogue, are covered by fees levied on members, ensuring the system is self-sustaining.

What this means for you

For public-sector procurement officers, IT strategists, and data centre operators, the EuroCloud Catalogue represents a new tool for capacity planning and resource optimisation.

1. Reduced Procurement Burden: If your organisation requires additional cloud or data centre capacity, you can first check the EuroCloud Catalogue to see if a trusted public sector partner has available capacity. This could reduce the need for external commercial procurement, potentially lowering costs and ensuring higher sovereignty assurance levels under CADA's framework.
2. Monetising Idle Capacity: If your organisation has underutilised data centre or cloud infrastructure, you can register it in the catalogue. This allows you to share idle capacity with other public bodies. Under Article 35(5), you may charge a fee, but it is strictly limited to recovering the actual costs incurred (e.g., for allocating resources, managing access, and ensuring compliance). It is a cost-recovery mechanism, not a profit centre.
3. Sovereignty Assurance: Services listed in the EuroCloud Catalogue are provided by public sector bodies or entities under public control. This aligns with CADA's goal of using sovereign cloud services for critical public order activities. Procuring from the federation ensures you are working within the EU's sovereignty framework.
4. Preparation for Implementation: As CADA is a proposal, the exact technical specifications of the catalogue are still to be defined in secondary legislation. However, public bodies should begin auditing their current data centre and cloud assets to understand what could potentially be shared in the future.

Common misconceptions

• Misconception: The EuroCloud catalogue is a public marketplace for anyone to buy cloud services.
  • Correction: No. Access is restricted to members of the EuroCloud Federation, which consists of Union entities and public sector bodies. Private companies cannot directly participate as members or buyers in the catalogue.
• Misconception: It lists software applications.
  • Correction: No. It lists data centre and cloud computing services (infrastructure). For software, you should look at the EU Open Source Solutions Catalogue under Article 43.
• Misconception: Sharing via the catalogue involves commercial profit-making.
  • Correction: No. Article 35(5) and Recital 73 state that fees charged for shared services are strictly limited to recovering the actual costs incurred by the sharing entity. It is a cost-recovery mechanism, not a profit-generating commercial venture.
• Misconception: The catalogue replaces national cloud strategies.
  • Correction: No. It complements them. Member States still have their own national strategies (Article 7), but the EuroCloud federation and its catalogue provide a cross-border mechanism to interconnect and share resources defined in those strategies.

Related

• Why does CADA separate the EuroCloud Federation from Commission procurement?
• EuroCloud Catalogue vs Sovereign Repository: What records apply?
• Why was the EuroCloud Federation created? CADA's public-sector cloud strategy
• Why must EuroCloud sharing fees be cost-based under CADA?
• Who runs the EuroCloud Federation under CADA?

This is general information about a draft EU regulation, not legal advice.