Amazon, Google, and Meta have warned that the European Union's proposed digital sovereignty legislation could cost the region €115 billion by 2036. This estimate, commissioned by the lobby group CCIA Europe, is over six times higher than the European Commission's own projection of €18 billion.
The study, conducted by the European Centre for International Political Economy, suggests that limiting reliance on US cloud providers will force public and private sectors to spend heavily on software migration and code rewrites. These technical adjustments account for approximately 69% of the projected total costs.
Public sector expenses are estimated at €33.3 billion, while private companies in sectors such as banking, energy, and healthcare could face costs of €80 billion. The latter figure assumes that sovereignty requirements will be extended to 25% of cloud workloads in critical industries.
The report highlights that Luxembourg, Denmark, Austria, Finland, and Ireland would face the highest costs per employee. Luxembourg is projected to incur the largest expense at €1,711 per worker over the next decade. CCIA Europe is urging the EU to revise the legislation and focus on risk-based technical measures.
