Francisco Mingorance
Secretary General of CISPE; called the EU sovereign cloud award a Google joint venture inclusion 'sovereignty washing'.
Last refreshed: 23 April 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Will CISPE file a legal challenge against the Commission's sovereign cloud award, or is 'sovereignty washing' just a lobbying talking point?
Timeline for Francisco Mingorance
Announced the framework at the Brussels summit as 'Making Sovereignty Verifiable'
European Tech Sovereignty: CISPE ships rival sovereign cloud badgeDelivered keynote titled 'Making Sovereignty Verifiable' at the summit
European Tech Sovereignty: Brussels sovereignty summit opens without European AI buildersCalled S3NS inclusion 'sovereignty washing' and 'clearly an own goal'
European Tech Sovereignty: Commission awards sovereign cloud slot to Google joint venture- What is CISPE and why is it criticising the EU sovereign cloud contract?
- CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe) is the trade body for European cloud providers. Its Secretary General Francisco Mingorance called the EU's inclusion of S3NS, a Thales-Google joint venture, in the €180m sovereign cloud framework 'sovereignty washing' and 'clearly an own goal'.Source: The Register / CISPE
- Is the EU sovereign cloud contract actually sovereign if it includes Google?
- S3NS, a joint venture between Thales and Google Cloud, achieved only SEAL-2 (minimum data sovereignty) while the other three awardees reached SEAL-3 (digital resilience). The US CLOUD Act means Google could be compelled to disclose S3NS-hosted data. CISPE calls this a structural sovereignty contradiction.Source: The Register / European Commission
- What is sovereignty washing in cloud computing?
- Sovereignty washing refers to cloud providers claiming or receiving sovereign certification when their infrastructure remains subject to foreign legal jurisdiction — particularly the US CLOUD Act, which allows American authorities to compel disclosure of data held anywhere by US-domiciled cloud firms.Source: CISPE / Francisco Mingorance public statements
Background
Francisco Mingorance is the Secretary General of CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe), the trade body representing European cloud providers including OVHcloud, Hetzner, and Scaleway. On 22 April 2026, he publicly described the European Commission's decision to include S3NS — a Thales/Google Cloud joint venture — in the €180m sovereign cloud framework as "clearly an own goal" and characterised it as "sovereignty washing" .
One day later, Mingorance delivers the keynote "Making Sovereignty Verifiable" at the inaugural Sovereign Tech Europe summit in Brussels, where he outlines CISPE's proposed auditable sovereignty framework — a certification system designed to give cloud procurement a legally defensible definition of what constitutes genuine sovereignty versus hedged access . The framework addresses a core problem: the Commission's SEAL (Sovereignty European Assurance Level) tiers treat SEAL-2 data sovereignty and SEAL-3 digital resilience as occupying the same procurement category, when they differ structurally.
As CISPE Secretary General, Mingorance represents the European cloud industry's commercial interest in enforcement of meaningful sovereignty distinctions. The US CLOUD Act creates a structural data-disclosure risk for any cloud provider legally domiciled in the US or operating through a US parent — a risk his "own goal" characterisation was designed to make concrete in the political debate.
