The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development last week credited spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure with helping global growth hold at 2.9% this year. Data centres and semiconductors have softened the oil shock the Middle East conflict triggered in February.
The EU, eager to triple its data centre capacity, keeps the power and water use of each facility out of public view. Europe stays silent because it wants the capacity that keeps its growth going.
But growth that depends on data centres rests on shaky ground when the public is not told how much power and water they use.
The euro zone has slow growth and energy-driven inflation, which explains its eagerness to keep pace with the United States and China. US growth of 2.2% leans on heavy AI investment that offsets weaker household spending. This week a complaint accuses the European Commission of hiding what each facility consumes.
What the Complaint Alleges
The complaint puts hard numbers on that demand. It invokes the Aarhus Convention, under which the public has a binding right to environmental information, and charges the Commission with building a “wall of silence” around the sector.
Last year Europe’s data centres used 20.7 terawatt-hours of electricity – as much as Croatia – and over 8 million cubic metres of water. Two years ago, power use rose 26% and water use 52%, though even those figures rely on incomplete reporting.
Honest accounting starts with data, and the Commission’s own assessment found only 36% of eligible facilities reported in the first round. The Commission itself concedes it collects the readings because regulators cannot judge sustainability without them. No community can judge a data centre being built next door with so little information.
Operators already report these readings to governments, so publishing them adds only a modest administrative step.
Microsoft’s Fingerprints on the Clause
This reporting gap is written into law. In April, an investigation found the Commission wrote into law a secrecy provision Microsoft and the lobby group DigitalEurope had drafted. The rules bar the Commission and national governments from releasing consumption data for individual sites, and only aggregate totals may be published.
Ten legal scholars told the investigators the provision may violate the Aarhus Convention. Belgium’s former Constitutional Court president, Luc Lavrysen, said the blanket clause “is clearly in violation” of EU transparency rules.
In May, 35 Green and Socialist members of the European Parliament urged Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall to delete the Microsoft amendment and restore “full transparency”. The Commission defends its system, insisting the confidentiality rules comply with EU law and the Aarhus Convention.
Commercial confidentiality protects legitimate interests such as chip designs and energy tariffs. Total electricity and water use is a public concern, because shared grids and aquifers serve everyone. Whatever the intent, the result rewards the lobbyists who asked for secrecy.
Capacity Outruns Accountability
Secrecy matters more as these numbers grow. JP Morgan projects European data centre electricity use climbing to around 115 terawatt-hours by 2030, citing Commission forecasts that put today’s level near 70.
In France, around 80 projects are seeking to connect to the grid, and local opposition is growing. Ireland has imposed a de facto moratorium on new Dublin data centres until 2028, and the Netherlands and Frankfurt have effectively frozen new connections until at least 2030.
Every facility’s neighbours bear the strain on the grid and water supply, whether the figures are published or not.
The campaign for publication finally has a formal route. The Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee will rule in November on whether the complaint can proceed, and the Commission’s rating label, launching next summer, still leaves out total consumption. Diego Solier, the conservative lawmaker working on the capacity plan, said transparency “should be the starting point”.
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