Summary As proposed in the EU Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA), the EuroCloud Federation would be open only to Union entities and public sector bodies, and only on a voluntary basis. An eligible body would not be enrolled automatically: it would have to request the European Commission to join. Private companies would be excluded from direct membership, a design choice the proposal links to avoiding distortions of competition. The Commission would set out the detailed joining procedure and a request template in later implementing acts.

Detail

The EuroCloud Federation is one of the building blocks of the proposed Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA, COM(2026) 502 final). It is still a proposal and not yet in force, so everything below describes what the text would do if adopted as drafted.

Article 34(1) of the proposal would establish the Federation and define who may take part. It provides that "The European public sector cloud federation (the 'EuroCloud Federation') is hereby established. The EuroCloud Federation shall be open for the participation of Union entities and public sector bodies on a voluntary basis. Union entities and public sector bodies may request the Commission to join the EuroCloud Federation." Three points follow directly from that wording: participation is limited to two categories of public actors, it is voluntary, and joining happens by request to the Commission.

Who is eligible to join

The two eligible categories come from the definitions in CADA Article 2.

  • Union entities. Article 2 defines this as the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies — that is, the EU's own public organisations.
  • Public sector bodies. Article 2 defines this term by cross-reference to Article 2(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/1024 (the Open Data Directive). On that basis it covers the State, regional and local authorities, bodies governed by public law, and associations formed by one or several such authorities or bodies. In plain terms, this reaches national governments, regional and municipal administrations, and many publicly controlled organisations across the Member States.

If your organisation does not fall into one of these two categories, it would not be able to become a direct member as the proposal stands.

Membership would be voluntary

Article 34(1) is explicit that participation is "on a voluntary basis." No Union entity or public sector body would be legally required to join. The Federation is offered as an option for bodies that want to share data centre and cloud capacity with peers, not as an obligation imposed on the public sector.

Joining would be by request to the Commission

There would be no automatic enrolment. Under Article 34(1), an eligible body "may request the Commission to join." Article 34(4) would then have the Commission adopt implementing acts setting out the procedure for participation and a template for the request, following the examination procedure in Article 46(2). So the precise forms, steps and any eligibility checks would be defined in that secondary legislation rather than in the Regulation itself.

Why private parties would be excluded

The exclusion of private companies from direct membership is not stated in Article 34 itself but is explained in the recitals, which set out the reasoning behind the operative text.

Recital 71 indicates that participation in the EuroCloud Federation "should be limited to public entities, without direct participation of a private party." The recital treats a private party as excluded where it would be the entity owning the hardware and providing the service. It also recognises that public bodies often act through intermediate entities, and sets out a control test of three cumulative conditions for such an intermediate entity to be treated as part of the public side rather than as a private participant: the public body must exercise decisive influence over the intermediate entity's strategic objectives and significant decisions; there must be no direct private capital participation in the intermediate entity; and more than 80% of the intermediate entity's activities must be in carrying out tasks entrusted to it by the sharing entity.

Recital 70 gives the underlying rationale: members must comply with specific requirements so that the Federation does not distort competition by putting one private provider at an advantage over others. The concern is that direct private membership, or preferential access to public workloads and shared infrastructure, could tilt the market. Private providers would therefore engage with the Federation indirectly — by supplying services to public members, which may then share those services among themselves under the conditions in Articles 35 and 36 — rather than by becoming members in their own right.

A possible future extension

The proposal leaves the door open to a wider membership later. Recital 69 notes that the Commission may, at a later stage and when it evaluates the Regulation, assess whether to let acceding countries, candidate countries, potential candidates, and EU-headquartered international organisations participate. This is described as a possible future development to be considered on review, not part of the current eligibility rules, so it should not be relied on today.

What members would get, and what they would pay

The point of joining, under Article 34(2), is to facilitate the sharing of services between Union entities and public sector bodies under the conditions in Articles 35 and 36. To support that, Article 34(3) describes a Commission platform with two parts: (a) a catalogue, and (b) a service platform for the exchange and orchestration of computing, storage and network resources and services.

Membership would not be free of charge. Article 36(1) provides that members would jointly finance the Commission's administration costs through fees. These are framed as covering the cost of running the Federation, not as a commercial charge.

What this means for you

If you work in public-sector procurement or IT, the practical takeaways are:

  • Check your status first. Only Union entities and public sector bodies (as defined in CADA Article 2) could join. Confirm where your organisation sits, and if you operate through an arm's-length entity, note the recital 71 control conditions.
  • Treat it as a choice, not a duty. Because membership is voluntary, you would need an internal business case weighing shared capacity and reduced external dependency against the effort and the fees.
  • Watch for the implementing acts. The actual request template and procedure would come from the Commission under Article 34(4). Those documents, not the headline Regulation, will tell you how to apply.
  • Budget for fees. Under Article 36(1), members would jointly fund administration costs, so factor a recurring contribution into any decision.

Common misconceptions

  • "Any cloud provider can join." No. Direct membership would be limited to Union entities and public sector bodies. Private providers would supply services to members rather than join (recitals 70 and 71).
  • "Membership is mandatory for EU public bodies." No. Article 34(1) makes participation voluntary.
  • "You are enrolled automatically once eligible." No. Eligible bodies would have to request to join the Commission (Article 34(1)), following a procedure to be set in implementing acts (Article 34(4)).
  • "Joining would be free." No. Article 36(1) provides that members would jointly finance the Commission's administration costs through fees.

Related

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