France and Germany to cooperate on 'sovereign data infrastructure' - minister

PARIS (Reuters) - Germany and France intend to pool efforts to create a "sovereign data infrastructure" for Europe so that the continent's data can be stored and processed at home rather than in the United States or China, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said.

Altmaier, in Paris for talks with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, said talks that had been underway on the matter in Germany would shortly conclude and their outcome could be combined with exploratory work taking place in France.

"There are ever larger volumes of data that have to be stored and processed, and because of a lack of capacity in Europe this often happens in the U.S. or China," he said. "So we have both decided to create a European alternative for a sovereign data infrastructure."

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Michelle Martin)