Swiss Justice Minister Vetoes an Amazon Role in the E-ID Trust Registers, and Sovereignty Becomes a Procurement Factor

Swiss voters approved the state e-ID by 50.39 percent, and the two federal offices building it came close to putting part of its trust infrastructure on Amazon's cloud. Federal Councillor Beat Jans, head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police (Eidgenössisches Justiz- und Polizeidepartement, EJPD), stopped the plan in mid February 2026. The online magazine Republik reported it on 1 September 2026; heise online, Blick and Swiss IT Magazine followed.

Quick answer: The Federal Office of Justice (Bundesamt für Justiz, BJ) and the Federal Office of Information Technology and Telecommunication (Bundesamt für Informatik und Telekommunikation, BIT) wanted to give Amazon Web Services extra capacity for running the e-ID trust infrastructure this spring. Jans vetoed it before any award was made, on grounds reported as the US Cloud Act, lock-in and a political "kill switch" risk. BIT is set to run the registers at two federal data centres. For IT suppliers the point is how Swiss and EU buyers are starting to score "digital sovereignty".

The story in five numbers

• 50.39 percent: the yes share in the 28 September 2025 referendum on the e-ID Act.
• Mid February 2026: when Jans stopped the plan; the award had been intended for spring 2026.
• 90 days: the window to pull federal data out after termination of the Amazon cloud contract, on Republik's reading of it.
• Five providers: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Alibaba, IBM and Oracle hold the federal "Public Clouds Bund" framework contracts (WTO-20007), extended to 2031.
• First half of 2027: expected start of the trust infrastructure, according to the BJ. The e-ID itself has no fixed launch date.

What was planned

The plan was a fallback. Republik describes "additional capacity for the operation of the so called trust infrastructure": the system has to be available around the clock, and if the federal data centres failed the Confederation could have fallen back quickly on Amazon. Republik calls that technically understandable; the federal border security office already runs its customs apps on Amazon for the same reason.

At stake were the system's two registers: the base register (Basisregister), which manages e-ID status in anonymised form, and the trust register (Vertrauensregister), the public list of authorised issuers and verifiers. Neither stores personal data from individual credentials, according to the programme's technology page.

Timing explains why the offices looked outside. Republik quotes insiders linking the plan to the missing Swiss Government Cloud, "massively delayed and not yet even put out to tender", which is why the Federal Chancellery extended the 2021 cloud framework contracts by another five years. heise online says the IT managers saw those existing framework contracts as a pragmatic way out.

Why it was stopped

No formal award was made. Republik reports that the BJ and BIT "wanted in spring" to award the task and that Jans stopped it in mid February. No report describes a signed contract or names the procurement route.

The objections reported are about control rather than data. Republik lists three: Amazon is subject to US surveillance laws such as the Cloud Act; technical lock-in would make a change of provider within 90 days barely manageable; and a "kill switch" risk if a US administration decided to pull the plug. On termination, the administration has only 90 days to withdraw its data before Amazon deletes it.

Nobody has quoted Jans on the sovereignty argument. Republik writes that an award to Amazon would run diametrically against the Federal Council's plans for more digital sovereignty, "as insiders close to the Federal Council confirm".

The response

The BJ neither denies nor defends the plan. Its statement to Republik, repeated by Blick: in the project work "all options were examined from a technical point of view, regardless of which options were favoured or considered at all".

The offices' case has a fair reading. The Federal Chancellery's guidance on the five framework providers says the specialist office decides on cloud use after a protection needs analysis and after consulting its department. That is broadly consistent with the process the Chancellery describes, although the reporting does not establish which formal steps were completed here.

Swiss IT Magazine reports that a number of critics show little understanding for the mere fact that a US hyperscaler made the shortlist at all.

Where the registers are now

The published line has not changed. The EJPD's 25 February 2026 notice says BIT will operate the infrastructure at two independent federal sites, PRIMUS in Bern and CAMPUS in Frauenfeld, and that the e-ID was expected to start on 1 December 2026.

That date has since gone. On 30 June 2026 the BJ said artificial intelligence developments require extra security in online issuing, the launch is postponed, and the date will follow once the work is largely complete. The trust infrastructure is expected to start in the first half of 2027 regardless.

What is still open

Nobody has published what replaces the Amazon fallback. The BJ's 30 June notice does not mention capacity or hosting, and the e-ID programme's procurement page, which says all its tenders go on simap.ch, links nothing newer than 2023. The Swiss Government Cloud services tender is still to come.

Sovereignty as an award factor

Digital sovereignty is a stated federal priority for 2026. The Federal Council's Digital Switzerland Strategy, updated on 12 December 2025 and binding on the federal administration, makes it one of three focus topics next to the e-ID itself, with the aim that the administration increase its sovereignty and crisis resilience.

It is also written into the next big Swiss cloud buy. The Swiss Government Cloud, planned for 2025 to 2032 at a total cost of CHF 319.4 million, has three tiers, and its middle tier, "Public Cloud Schweiz", keeps data in Switzerland "also to meet higher sovereignty requirements". Until then, BIT's April 2026 "Professional Services Public Cloud" tender, eight lots with a CHF 130 million ceiling to the end of 2031, bridges the gap.

The EU is going further. On 3 June 2026 the European Commission proposed the Cloud and AI Development Act (COM(2026) 502 final). Contracting authorities buying cloud services would have to procure at least "Union assurance level 1", and where a risk assessment finds "public order relevance" only services recognised at levels 2 to 4, which run from demonstrated independence from third countries to EU ownership and full supply chain control. A separate article would require Member State buyers to include "Union added value" criteria in public procurements for innovative cloud services and AI systems, although those criteria would have to remain ancillary rather than decisive. It is a proposal, not law.

The Commission's own purchasing shows how this plays out. On 17 April 2026 it awarded a EUR 180 million sovereign cloud tender to four European providers, scored against its Cloud Sovereignty Framework, and said non European technologies operated within a strict framework can meet the minimum level. One winning consortium includes S3NS, a Thales and Google Cloud joint venture.

What to do now

• Bidding for a Swiss public operations or hosting contract? Check which SGC tier or protection level the requirement maps to, and prepare your exit terms and third country exposure statement before the questions round.
• Selling into an EU public body? Read the assurance level definitions in COM(2026) 502 now; even as a proposal, they are the vocabulary buyers with "public order relevance" will use next.
• Watching the e-ID itself? Follow simap.ch and the e-ID programme's procurement page for any notice on register operation or fallback capacity; nothing has appeared since the veto.

Open Tendly to see the Swiss operations and data centre tenders currently open, or let a Strategist expert watch them for you.