AWS and other US cloud hosts do have data centers in various “regions” (countries) around the world. Some countries have requirements that the servers are physically located there. And iirc, as I worked with some of this in the past, as an example some EU countries for their services required that only EU citizens had certain types of access to those systems. Ultimately they are still owned by US companies. But those companies try to accommodate their access requirements, in order to get their business. Not saying EU shouldn’t move away from US companies, but wanted to clarify some existing policies.

but most politicians (naively) didn’t see the current hostility coming.

i don't think that's relevant. such sensitive data should be kept in-house and well guarded, not uploaded into public cloud.