A cross-border investigation has revealed how industry lobbying is shaping data centre regulation in the EU.
17 Apr 2026
DATA CENTRE OPERATORS successfully lobbied the European Commission to amend legislation intended to bring transparency to the continent’s booming data centre industry, a new investigation has revealed.
Since 2024, the European Commission has collected key metrics like energy efficiency and water consumption from data centres.
But much of this information is hidden from public view, after the industry successfully lobbied to classify it as confidential and commercially sensitive.
The Journal Investigates has partnered with Investigate Europe and outlets across the continent to investigate the growing environmental impact of data centres.
The investigation, led by Investigate Europe, has uncovered how Microsoft and DigitalEurope, a lobby group whose members include Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, led the charge to amend these new transparency rules.
Legal experts from across Europe told our team they believe the confidentiality agreement could violate EU transparency rules, as well as the bloc’s obligations under the Aarhus Convention, an international treaty on access to environmental information.
Part of these new European rules also requires data centre operators to monitor the energy performance of their data centres and to make this information publicly available at the national level.
But Ireland has missed the first two reporting deadlines due to delays at the Department of the Environment in transposing the legislation.
It also appears likely to miss the next reporting deadline, which is 15 May this year, with the legislation still not transposed.
A spokesperson for the Department told The Journal Investigates that the drafting of the legislation has progressed to “an advanced stage”.
A Microsoft spokesperson said they “support greater transparency around data centres”, adding that they are “taking further steps to increase openness, while protecting confidential business information.”
DigitalEurope did not respond to a request for comment.
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Lobby efforts keep data centre information secret
The latest EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) revision came into force in 2023 and, among other things, requires data centre operators to monitor and report key environmental information such as energy consumption, power utilisation, water usage and use of renewable energy for data centres.
This information is reported directly to the European Commission, but only aggregated data from each member state is made publicly available.
This means that the environmental impact of these vast facilities remains largely secret, despite the data flowing into a publicly-funded database.
Our investigation has revealed how lobbying from major data centre operators was successful in keeping specific information from individual data centres confidential and out of the public domain.
During the consultation period for the new rules, Microsoft and DigitalEurope both provided feedback, requesting an identical new article in the legislation that would classify all information on individual data centres as confidential.
When the Commission published the final text in March 2024, the proposed article had been added almost word-for-word.
Article 5 of the final text reads: “Such information shall be considered confidential information affecting the commercial interests of operators and owners of data centres.”
As a result, information relating to the individual impact of data centre projects cannot be accessed under transparency legislation, like Freedom of Information requests, leaving only the aggregated data from each member state.
It is another example of industry “ramping up their lobby efforts to shape EU legislation”, said Bram Vranken, who researches the area for Corporate Europe Observatory, an NGO in Brussels. He said he had never seen such a striking example of changes to EU law. He added:
The fact that the Commission copy-pasted a Microsoft amendment is shocking. Who does the Commission really represent: Big Tech or the public interest?
A spokesperson for Microsoft did not respond to specific questions about the company’s lobbying, but said they “support greater transparency around data centres, as sustainability disclosure can help drive better outcomes and build public trust.”
They added: “We are taking further steps to increase openness, while protecting confidential business information.”
DigitalEurope did not respond to a request for comment.
Legal experts question confidentiality
Further revelations show that EU member states were advised to refuse public requests for the information.
In an email sent in early 2025 and shared with our team, a senior Commission figure stressed to national authorities that they were “obliged to keep confidential all information and key performance indicators for individual data centres.”
Legal experts, however, say the clause goes against the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Aarhus Convention, which grants public access to environmental information such as emissions data.
Luc Lavrysen, former President of the Belgian Constitutional Court and Emeritus Professor of environmental law at Ghent University, said the blanket confidentiality clause “is clearly in violation” of EU transparency rules and the Aarhus Convention.
The Commission’s internal position, according to sources close to the matter, is that making each data centre’s information public might discourage operators from reporting altogether.
But according to the EU’s own data, only 38% of eligible data centres – around 770 facilities – have reported so far. The Commission added that only 80% of the reported data is “deemed to be accurate and reliable”.
For Ireland’s data centres, this same report shows that just 18 provided data to the Commission, demonstrating a similarly low participation rate.
Even though data centres in Ireland are reporting directly to this database, there is no aggregated data available for either 2023 or 2024.
It’s unclear why no Irish data is available, but it’s understood that aggregated data will be published soon.
Multiple missed deadlines
In addition to this European Commission database, Article 12 of the EED requires data centre operators to monitor and make information on the energy performance of their data centres publicly available at the national level.
Data centres already consume vast amounts of power, with CSO data showing that electricity consumption from Irish data centres surpassed urban residential consumption in 2023.
Metered Electricity Consumption 2015-2024
Electricity consumption from data centres has grown significantly in recent years, with it now surpassing urban residential consumption.
A line graph showing the metered electricity consumption of rural residential, urban residential and data centres from 2015 to 2023. The data is sourced from the CSO and shows how Electricity consumption from data centres has grown significantly in recent years, with it now surpassing urban residential consumption.201520162017201820192020202120222023202401,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,000 GWhData Centres20236,334 GWhData Centres20236,334 GWh
Rural Residential
Urban Residential
Data Centres
GWh – Gigawatt-hours
Chart: The Journal InvestigatesSource: CSOCreated with Datawrapper
But Professor of sustainable energy at University College Cork, Hannah Daly, told our team there’s a lack of “any kind of granularity” on these data centres. “It’s a completely opaque sector,” she added.
The information released under Article 12 would provide further insight into the energy demands of these power-hungry facilities.
But, as previously reported by The Currency, Ireland has missed the first two reporting deadlines for making this information available due to delays in transposing the legislation.
Ireland also seems likely to miss the next deadline – set for 15 May this year – with no sign of the transposed legislation.
An analysis of Parliamentary Questions since 2024 highlights the shifting timelines the Department has given on when this law will be transposed.
In response to a question from former Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall in May 2024, the then-Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan said the law would be transposed later that year.
By October 2024, however, this had already shifted to being in place for the second reporting deadline in May 2025.
In April 2025, Minister for the Environment Darragh O’Brien told Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin that the necessary legislation would be in place in the second quarter of 2025.
But having missed this deadline again, the new timeline became the third quarter of 2025, before later becoming the end of 2025.
The last deadline provided by O’Brien states that the legislation will be transposed by the end of the first quarter of 2026.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment did not respond to questions from The Journal Investigates about whether the legislation will be transposed in time for the next reporting deadline, only stating that it is at “an advanced stage”.
They added that they are keeping “stakeholders and the Commission updated” on progress.
A data centre boom across Europe
Data centres are a booming industry in Europe, with nearly €200 billion expected to be spent over the next five years, and Ireland is no exception.
A previous investigation from The Journal Investigates in 2024 found a total of 89 data centres in Ireland, with a further 41 in the pipeline.
- The Journal Investigates has created a visual, interactive map showcasing where Ireland’s data centres are located. Explore the map here >>
The recent removal of the de facto moratorium on data centres in Dublin and the race to develop AI models is also likely to spur development even further.
In response to this boom, a flurry of EU laws have sprung up in attempts to regulate the sector. But our investigation reveals that the data centre industry has lobbied for changes here too.
In December, the European Commission put forward a draft bill to speed up EU-mandated environmental impact assessments for major construction projects, including many of the biggest data centre projects. The proposal is part of a broader push to slash bureaucratic burden on businesses.
For months, Microsoft and Amazon were among those lobbying for fast-tracked planning permission processes, both pointing to the Spanish region of Aragon’s “one-stop shop” approach for environmental paperwork.
The region’s new investor-friendly rules have been criticised by activists for letting data centre operators like Amazon “rezone land, avoid taxes and deadlines, with little public participation.”
The Journal Investigates has also previously reported that data centres were exacerbating water scarcity in the Aragon region by using drinking water from the urban water supply system.
A document obtained under Freedom of Information shows Microsoft met with an EU official in late October last year to discuss “permitting”, with the company calling for “capped deadlines”.
Microsoft saw the “streamlining of permitting procedures as a critical enabler,” the company wrote in an email to the European Commission.
The proposed law, now under review, sets hard response deadlines for local authorities, puts a cap of 90 days for community consultation, and could see high-priority applications fast-tracked through certain administrative steps.
Ioannis Agapakis, a lawyer from non-profit group Client Earth, warned that contracting community consultation could see people miss their chance to identify serious issues.
While the Commission plans to publish sustainability scores covering a handful of indicators for individual data centres, the vast majority of what operators report will remain confidential, shielded by the very clause the industry effectively wrote for itself.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the company “has ambitious 2030 commitments on carbon, water, waste, and biodiversity, and tracks performance against high standards.”
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Pascal Hansens (Investigate Europe)
The Journal Investigates
Reporters: Nico Schmidt, Ella Joyner (Investigate Europe) & Conor O’Carroll (The Journal Investigates) • Editors: Chris Matthews (Investigate Europe) & Noel Baker (The Journal Investigates) • Social Media: Cliodhna Travers • Main Image Design: Lorcan O’Reilly
This investigation was led and coordinated by Investigate Europe, a cross-border journalism team. The story is being published with media partners including Die Zeit, El País, EU Observer, The Guardian, Altreconomia, The Journal, Le Monde and Tech Policy Press.
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