The EU authorities have established opaque rules that allow the data centre sector to conceal from the public how much water and energy they actually consume. Lighthouse Reports has accused the EU’s executive body of this and has lodged a formal complaint under the Aarhus Convention on access to information.
This was reported by Politico.
"EU politicians are determined to ban or restrict access to information and to create confusion about how data centres operate," the complaint states.
The commission has not yet responded to Politico’s enquiry, but it is understood that as early as November it is due to decide whether the European Union has breached its obligations regarding data transparency.
The race for technology
The expansion of data centres is a key factor in the development of artificial intelligence technology. The EU does not want to fall behind the US and China, and has therefore publicly announced its intention to triple the capacity of its data centres in the coming years.
However, there is an important caveat. This infrastructure is extremely energy-intensive and requires large amounts of water to cool the equipment. Consequently, the development of these centres is meeting with resistance, both due to environmental concerns and the rising cost of energy in the EU.
Data from the European Commission show that in 2025 alone, data centres consumed 20.7 TWh of energy — the same amount as the whole of Croatia. Over 8 million cubic metres of water were also used. Compared with 2024, these figures rose by 26 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.
However, even these figures are most likely incomplete, as they are based on incomplete information. They were published following the 2024 law, which prohibited Brussels and EU capitals from disclosing “all information and key performance indicators relating to individual data centres”.
"Transparency must be the starting point. At the same time, it must remain proportionate and not require companies to disclose genuinely commercially confidential information," said MEP Diego Solier.
The right to information
Lighthouse Reports initially tried to obtain this data from the European Commission and national governments, but to no avail. A complaint under the Aarhus Convention is therefore a necessary step.
"The Commission bears primary responsibility for obscuring the public impact of large-scale data centre construction in Europe, by allowing operators to conceal details of their energy consumption and avoid scrutiny in the process," the publication emphasises.
EcoPolitics previously reported on how much water artificial intelligence consumes from humanity.
Tech lobbyists are also exploiting the need to develop infrastructure for AI in order to force the EU to abandon its climate targets and allow the development of gas-fired power stations.
