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European lawmakers are pressuring the European Commission to make environmental information from highly polluting data centres publicly available in upcoming rules, citing a deep-dive investigation by corporate watchdogs showing the EU executive is “copy-pasting” text suggested by Microsoft.
“It is one thing for Microsoft to seek to protect its interests; it is quite another for the Commission to incorporate its demands almost word for word into European law,” Greens/EFA lawmaker David Cormand (France) told Euronews, commenting on the report by the watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory and AlgorithmWatch.
In a recent letter addressed to Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswal, 35 Green and Socialist MEPs asked the EU executive to delete a Microsoft amendment and restore “full transparency” regarding the environmental impact of data centres.
The signatories argue that the EU executive’s draft rules include text “almost word-for-word identical to wording suggested by the US tech company Microsoft and the lobby group DigitalEurope”.
“It states that the Commission and the member states will keep all information on individual data centres confidential”, reads the letter.
The MEPs argue that the influence of corporate lobby reflects a broader democratic problem in Brussels, where complex laws are often shaped with limited public visibility despite having significant environmental and economic consequences.
Tripling data centre capacity in the EU
The plea comes as the EU executive prepares to present a much-delayed dual strategy on 3 June. According to a leak seen by Euronews, the plan is intended to set out how the bloc will provide energy for artificial intelligence (AI) and data centres and use AI and digitalisation to optimise the energy system itself.
The EU wants to triple its data centre capacity within 5 to 7 years, citing aggressive competition from China and the US’s integration of AI into their energy systems. The EU executive claims that without action, the bloc risks falling behind technologically, threatening its future industrial competitiveness.
But for EU lawmakers, it is “extremely worrying” that vital information linked to the environmental impact of data centres is being withheld from the public.
“This is especially concerning given that the rapid build-out of data centres across Europe is putting increasing strain on electricity grids and contributing to rising electricity prices,” reads the MEPs’ letter, which also notes that AI workloads will increase electricity demand dramatically.
Unlawful provision and environmental footprint
The signatories claim the provision goes far beyond protecting legitimate trade secrets and instead risks placing almost all operational emissions and energy-use data behind closed doors. That, they argue, would undermine the intent of the Energy Efficiency law, which was designed to improve transparency and allow public scrutiny of high-energy industries.
The controversy comes at a sensitive moment for the EU, which is trying to balance two competing priorities: investment in cloud computing and AI infrastructure on the one hand, and legally binding climate and energy efficiency targets on the other.
Currently, there are roughly 3,000 data centres in Europe and roughly 300 so-called hyperscale data centres designed to handle increasingly growing AI data. Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordics have the biggest concentration of data centres in the EU.
These facilities are major consumers of electricity and water, and the prospect of many more popping up rapidly across Europe as demand for AI computing grows has raised serious concerns about grid pressure and environmental impact.
While they don’t create airborne pollution like factories, data centres contribute indirectly through carbon dioxide emissions from electricity demand, diesel backup generation and construction. Large facilities also typically require huge cooling systems, which leads to water stress concerns during droughts or competition with local communities and farmers.
“The Commission has granted Big Tech an early win: crucial information on individual data centres’ energy use, and their environmental and climate impact will be kept secret – despite the underlying directive explicitly calling for their publication,” stated the Corporate Europe Observatory.
“As the Commission is set to put the new ‘updated’ Delegated Act in force soon, the conclusion should be clear: the Commission has to redo its homework and delete the copy-pasted Microsoft amendment.”
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