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On November 3, 2026, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at a digital summit that Google Cloud is sufficiently sovereign for German intelligence agencies, and that European sovereignty can also be achieved through investment by American suppliers in Germany and Europe. He said the offline cloud to be used by the intelligence agencies is not a fully integrated infrastructure but "European infrastructure," and expressed high confidence in its data security. Previously, German and European institutions had been pushing to replace American hyperscale cloud providers with local vendors. On November 4, heise online published a commentary by Falk Steiner criticizing Merz's commitment to digital sovereignty as empty, arguing that the real risk lies in the software stack updates being in the hands of American vendors—once updates are cut off, only a few months remain to migrate; the commentary also said that without anchor customers such as the German intelligence agencies, Europe's independent cloud infrastructure would be difficult to both develop and operate.
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Commentary: Merz's empty sovereignty promisesDevelopments
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Falk Steiner criticizes Merz's digital sovereignty pledge as empty
Source:heise onlineMerz says Google Cloud is sufficiently sovereign for German intelligence agencies
Source:heise online
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Browse reports and discussion by time. Their evidence levels remain distinct.
Nov 4
heise online
Commentary: Merz's empty sovereignty promises
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended the German intelligence agency's use of Google Cloud at the Berlin Digital Summit, saying the data "is secure for us" and stressing that Google is also investing in Europe. The commentary notes that the real risk is not forced US data access, but the "soft kill-switch" of software stack updates being in the hands of US vendors: once updates are cut off, only a few months remain to migrate. The author argues that without anchor customers like the German intelligence agency, Europe's independent cloud infrastructure would be difficult to both develop and operate, and that Merz's remarks undermine digital sovereignty efforts.
Nov 3
heise online
German Chancellor Merz: Google Cloud is sufficiently sovereign for intelligence agencies
At a digital summit, German Chancellor Merz said that Google Cloud is sufficiently sovereign for German intelligence agencies, and that European sovereignty can also be achieved through U.S. suppliers investing in Germany and Europe. He said the offline cloud to be used by the intelligence agencies is not a fully integrated infrastructure, but "European infrastructure," and expressed high confidence in its data security. Previously, German and European institutions had been pushing to replace U.S. hyperscale cloud providers with local vendors.