Copy, paste, govern: Microsoft ghostwrote EU policy that keeps data centers’ energy use secret - AlgorithmWatch

Copy, paste, govern: Microsoft ghostwrote EU policy that keeps data centers’ energy use secret

The EU Commission’s policy on data centers keeps information on the energy and water use of individual centers under wraps. Research by Corporate and Europe Observatory and AlgorithmWatch, published by Investigate Europe, reveals the Commission copied and pasted an amendment suggested by Microsoft and the lobby group Digital Europe. The aim: To prevent NGOs from obtaining information on energy-hungry data centers in the face of growing resistance.

Blog<br>April 17, 2026<br>Auf Deutsch lesen<br>#eu #europeancommission #sustainability

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This text is a joint research by Corporate Europe Observatory and AlgorithmWatch. The research results were also published by Investigate Europe.

Since the AI Action Summit in Paris in February 2025, attended by dozens of government leaders and business executives, the European Commission is increasingly focused on ‘winning the global AI race’. Soon after the summit, it launched its AI Continent Action Plan, which aims to triple Europe’s data center capacity by 2030.

Fueled by the AI boom, the Commission plans to relax permitting rules to make it easier for tech companies to build data centers. But their rapid expansion is already putting immense pressure on energy and water supplies and electricity grids, and threatens the EU’s climate goals.

In the Dublin area for example, data centers already consume an extraordinary 50 per cent of the electricity supply, putting immense pressure on prices and grids for the rest of society. The energy demands are so high that there are now long waiting times for connection to the grid. Therefore, big tech data centers are increasingly being powered by on-site fossil gas generators. With Big Tech companies pouring hundreds of billions of euros into AI data centers, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that data center electricity consumption will grow by 15 per cent per year — more than four times faster than consumption from other sectors.

The EU is trying to address this rising energy demand through the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), which obliges tech companies to transparency on the power demand of data centers. However, new research by Corporate Europe Observatory and AlgorithmWatch shows that Microsoft played a key role in drafting a crucial article that largely makes this obligation an empty shell.

Data centers’ energy use? None of your business

The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), passed in 2023 as part of the Green Deal, aims to improve energy efficiency across the EU. While the directive covers energy use across policy areas, Article 12 relates specifically to data centers. It aims to create minimum transparency requirements regarding energy consumption, water usage, and the use of renewable energy. In the face of greenwashing from the tech industry, increased transparency could help dispelling baseless claims made by companies and documenting the local impact of the global AI boom.

But while the Energy Efficiency Directive makes it clear that transparency is the standard, it leaves a crucial loophole by exempting information that is covered by trade and business secrets. A loophole that Big Tech was able to exploit.

In 2024 the EU Commission began drafting a 'Delegated Act on the rating scheme for data centers’ to implement Article 12 of the Energy Efficiency Directive. Microsoft and the lobby organization DigitalEurope submitted position papers to the Commission. In doing so, they closely coordinated with each other to lobby for the transparency requirements set out in the EED to be significantly weakened, and for the scope of trade and business secrets to be broadened to cover all data on individual data centers. Information was only to be made available at an aggregate level. In effect, this makes it impossible to know how much energy a specific data center would use, making it significantly harder to document the real-world consequences of building more data centers and their environmental impact.

It is important to note that the vast energy requirements of data centers are creating political backlash. Resistance campaigns are increasing, from locals objecting to skyrocketing electricity bills in Ireland to communities facing water scarcity in Spain. In the United States, grassroots groups have substantially slowed down the data center rush. According to one estimate, at least $156 billion across 48 projects were blocked or stalled in 2025. While Europe is still in the early stages of the data center build out, Big Tech firms – who have staked billions on AI – have a key interest in creating roadblocks for this kind of growing opposition.

With this in mind, the reasons stated by Microsoft and DigitalEurope for blocking information on data center energy usage...