Written question – Digital sovereignty or digital blockade? Effects of the planned regulation of data centres – E-002451/2025

Source: European Parliament

Question for written answer  E-002451/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Piotr Müller (ECR)

The Commission has announced a legislative package on data centre energy efficiency to be published in 2026, along with a roadmap for digitalisation and artificial intelligence.

Meanwhile, the European data centre sector is already facing an extremely difficult environment – rising energy costs, severe limits on the availability of connection capacity and increasing administrative requirements that are slowing down the development of new infrastructure.

Instead of supporting a sector which underpins Europe’s digital and technological sovereignty, the Commission is signalling another regulatory wave – with no details, no clear impact assessment and no indication how the EU wants to remain competitive with the United States or Asia.

In light of the above:

  • 1.Is the Commission not concerned that imposing additional burdens will lead to investment flight outside the EU and a weakening of this strategic sector?
  • 2.How does the Commission justify a policy that could permanently limit the development of AI and cloud services in Europe?
  • 3.Given that the policy being pushed through could lead to the digital deindustrialisation of Europe, what economic model is the Commission relying on?

Submitted: 18.6.2025

Last updated: 25 June 2025