Former Brussels lawmaker Kay Swinburne has warned that the EU’s push to establish its own data storage infrastructure to rival US giants Amazon and Google threatens the outsourcing arrangements that underpin asset managers’ global business models.
The EU is determined to reboot its data storage prowess in a bid to reduce the region’s reliance on US cloud suppliers, which policymakers fear could compromise the security of sensitive European information. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has made “digital sovereignty” a big priority, while France and Germany are drawing up proposals to develop a European data storage champion, called Gaia-X.
Swinburne said that the EU’s aims suggested it favored limiting the transfer of EU customer data outside of the bloc: “While this is not likely to prohibit delegation outside of the EU, it may increase operational costs, if there is a requirement to use an EU cloud provider or adhere to approved EU cloud standards or codes of conduct,” she said.