The Steering Board that brings together tech Chief Executive Officers and government representatives with responsibility for IT procurement met for the first time in Brussels. With this meeting, it was launched a process where public authorities and industry work together to help building the EU Digital Single Market for cloud computing pursuant to the European Cloud Computing Strategy.

The Steering Board of the new European Cloud Partnership (ECP), that upon the chair of Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Estonia, brings together tech Chief Executive Officers and government representatives with responsibility for IT procurement, met for the first time in Brussels. The ECP aims at leveraging the public sector's buying power to shape the growing and maturing market for cloud computing services. The new Commission's strategy to speed up and increase the use of cloud computing across the economy was presented in September 2012.

The meeting was the kicking-off of a process where public authorities and industry work together to help building the EU Digital Single Market for cloud computing pursuant to the European Cloud Computing Strategy. Under the guidance of its Steering Board, the ECP will bring together public authorities and industry consortia to implement pre-commercial procurement actions for public sector cloud computing. The ECP will develop common cloud computing procurement requirements for use by Member States and public authorities throughout the EU.

More particularly, this first meeting discussed and decided on its 2013-2014 objectives. Most importantly, the board will work to raise public awareness and map out practical solutions to barriers to cloud computing adoption in the public sector whilst dispelling imaginary ones. It aims at making cloud readiness and adoption a political priority.