Policy, Legal and Regulatory Implications of a Europe-Only Cloud

There has been on-going discussion regarding the alignment of cloud computing services to a range of European policy objectives. This paper provides an outline of key legal and regulatory aspects arising from recent calls for establishing a Europe-only cloud. After covering the background to such calls, it outlines the policy objectives that may underlie the Europe-only cloud proposals. It then considers some of the legal and regulatory implications of a "Europe-only cloud" or national cloud by analysing what may be meant by "cloud", "Europe", and "only" in this connection