Gaia-X

Gaia-X is a European initiative launched by the governments of Germany and France in 2019 to develop a federated framework for cloud services and data infrastructures based on common requirements for interoperability, transparency, data control and compliance. The initiative subsequently developed into Gaia-X AISBL, a Belgian international non-profit association bringing together cloud providers, technology companies, users and research organisations. It was developed to help ensure European digital sovereignty. It has moved past the development stage and is now being implemented. It promotes interoperability and data sovereignty across Europe and elsewhere. It provides a framework and tools digital governance to ensure data can be shared securely while complying with European values of transparency, openness, data protection, and security, which can be applied to cloud technologies to obtain transparency and controllability across data and services. The project name is a reference to the Greek goddess Gaia. Gaia-X started as an initiative by the former German Minister of Economic Affairs, Peter Altmaier, and his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, in 2019. Originally presented at the 2019 Digital Summit in Dortmund, Germany, the initiative is under the von der Leyen Commission of European strategic autonomy and is under continuous development. The initiative is based in Belgium and has the legal form of an international non-profit organization (AISBL). It aims to develop a proposal for the next generation of data infrastructure for Europe, and promote the digital sovereignty of European users of cloud services.