The FACIS Service Level Agreements (SLAs) Event held in Berlin on November 24, 2025, marked a pivotal step towards Europe’s digital sovereignty. Key stakeholders came together to discuss the SLA Governance Framework, a toolkit designed to create a harmonized, interoperable digital infrastructure across Europe. The framework comprises two main components: the SLA Taxonomy and the SLA Governance Playbook. These components establish a common vocabulary and set of guidelines for multi-provider ecosystems. Together, they offer the first shared framework for multi-provider, cross-border SLAs, making digital cooperation across Europe clearer, safer and more reliable.
A Milestone for European Digital Collaboration
Europe is increasingly focused on creating sovereign and resilient digital infrastructure. As Markus Heß, Deputy Director General, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, noted in his keynote at the Berlin event, this ambition is hindered by Europe’s fragmented digital landscape. The FACIS SLA Governance Framework aims to unify Europe’s digital services, enabling seamless cooperation across borders and industries.
Why a Common Framework Matters Now
The FACIS event underscored the urgency of developing a unified European digital infrastructure capable of supporting increasingly complex services, such as autonomous mobility and AI-driven industries. The FACIS framework provides a solution to harmonize Europe’s fragmented cloud ecosystem. Heß as well as the participants of the political panel emphasized that digital sovereignty is critical for Europe’s future, especially in light of geopolitical shifts that demand resilience. The FACIS framework addresses these challenges by fostering collaboration and providing a platform for shared rules and mutual value creation. It represents a critical shift from an ego-system model to a more ecosystem-driven approach.
The FACIS SLA Governance Framework
The SLA Governance Framework, which was unveiled for the first time in Berlin, is a practical toolkit that organizations in federated ecosystems can implement immediately. Consisting of two components, the SLA Taxonomy and the SLA Governance Playbook, it provides a shared vocabulary to standardize terminology across providers and a practical guide for creating actionable SLAs, respectively. Together, these tools promote transparency, accountability, and scalability among service providers.
We are not just building a system, we are building a mindset.
Aligning Technical Frameworks and Business Needs: Industry Perspectives on SLA Governance
Europe’s cloud and edge ecosystems will be more interconnected than ever – and a challenge to manage. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are key to keep multi-provider systems running smoothly, but traditional SLAs can’t keep up with today’s complexity.
At the SLA Governance Introduction Event on November 24, 2025 in Berlin, companies such as SAP, Bosch, Amadeus, Deutsche Telekom, Business Impulse, and the GAIA-X initiative shared their insights on how the SLA Governance Framework could address these multi-provider challenges.
In their presentations, the speakers highlighted the necessity of having a shared terminology and common language within contracts to effectively manage services across multiple providers. They identified several challenges, including the need for flexible frameworks that prevent vendor lock-in, the importance of reliable and low-latency connections for cooperative digital systems, and the operational complexity of integrating diverse stakeholders. Standardised SLAs were seen as vital for reducing friction, improving coordination, and aligning expectations, ultimately enabling more efficient service management and fostering accountability and trust throughout the ecosystem.
Overall, the SLA Governance Framework is seen as crucial for harmonizing standards, fostering trust, and ensuring performance in complex multi-provider environments.
The Path Forward: From Blueprint to a Living Ecosystem
The FACIS framework is just the beginning of a journey. The current deliverables establish a foundation for the future development, adoption, and scaling of multi-provider SLAs. Thomas Niessen, FACIS Co-Lead for SLA Governance, sees the Framework as a recipe, noting that the Taxonomy established the necessary common vocabulary (the “ingredients”), and the Playbook provided the step-by-step instructions for crafting robust SLAs. Everything is now in place for organizations in federated ecosystems to start cooking. As Dr. Bahne Sievers of Fieldfisher noted, the modular Playbook is designed as a living governance toolkit that can be used to continuously improve SLAs across federated ecosystems.
As the project moves towards operationalizing the SLA Governance Framework, the next steps include:
- SLA Demonstrator: A tool to showcase the framework’s application in real-world scenarios, allowing businesses to experiment and provide feedback.
- Automating SLA Management: Transitioning from natural language SLAs to machine-readable formats, such as JSON, to enhance the efficiency of compliance monitoring and enforcement. This automation is essential to reducing the transaction effort required to bring parties together.
These steps will help facilitate the adoption of the framework, ensuring that the principles laid out in the SLA Taxonomy and Governance Playbook become tangible, actionable solutions for businesses. The next step for the ecosystem is to provide FACIS with feedback on the framework for the next phase.
Conclusion: Building a Foundation for Europe’s Digital Future
The FACIS SLA event in Berlin was a significant step in Europe’s progress toward digital sovereignty and interoperability. The SLA Governance Framework, with its SLA Taxonomy and Governance Playbook, provides the necessary tools to create a harmonized, scalable approach for managing multi-provider ecosystems. While the framework is a technical solution, it is also a strategic statement about Europe’s commitment to collaboration, transparency, and sovereignty. The work is far from over, and continued community engagement, real-world testing, and feedback will be crucial to refining the framework and ensuring its success. As Andreas Weiss, FACIS Co-Lead for SLA Governance and Managing Director at eco Association, said, “We are not just building a system, we are building a mindset.“
