Data-center law in European Union

Supranational jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06

At EU level, data centre energy performance sits in Article 12 and Annex VII of the recast Energy Efficiency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/1791), which requires Member States to make owners and operators of data centres with an installed information technology power demand of at least 500 kW report a fixed set of energy, floor area, water and renewable-energy metrics and publish them, feeding a European database the Commission maintains and makes available at an aggregated level; data centres used exclusively for defence or civil protection are exempt.

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 implements the first phase of that scheme, fixing the reporting mechanism, the key performance indicators and a first set of sustainability indicators, with reporting data centre operators due to communicate their first figures by 15 September 2024 and every 15 May thereafter. Neither instrument reaches siting, land use, water permitting, construction or air-emissions consent for a data centre, which remain matters of national law not surveyed here.

Two further EU instruments touch data centres without creating a siting, permitting or utility duty of the kind this topic tracks: Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/424 sets ecodesign requirements for the placing on the market and putting into service of servers and online data storage products, binding manufacturers, their authorised representatives and importers rather than data centre developers or operators, and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139, Annex I, section 8.1, sets the EU Taxonomy Regulation's technical screening criteria for the 'Data processing, hosting and related activities' economic activity (associated with NACE code J63.11), a sustainability-disclosure classification for reporting undertakings rather than a compute-facility duty.

Instruments on record

2 instruments on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.

Energy and grid

What authorizations govern grid connection and onsite generation?

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 on the common Union data centre rating scheme, first phase

In force

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 of 14 March 2024

Effective 2024-09-15 · Applies to both

Adopted under Article 33(3) of Directive (EU) 2023/1791, this Delegated Regulation sets the information and key performance indicators that operators of data centres with an installed information technology power demand of at least 500 kW must communicate to the European database, and a first set of data centre sustainability indicators calculated from that data.

Reporting data centre operators had to submit their first figures by 15 September 2024 and must submit again by 15 May 2025 and every year thereafter. The Commission and the Member States concerned must keep confidential the information and indicators reported for individual data centres. Only the sustainability indicators are published, aggregated at Member State and Union level.

Source: Full text of law

Energy Efficiency Directive (recast), Article 12 and Annex VII (data centre energy performance reporting)

In force

Directive (EU) 2023/1791, Article 12 and Annex VII

Effective 2024-05-15 · Applies to both

By 15 May 2024 and every year thereafter, Member States must require owners and operators of data centres in their territory with an installed information technology power demand of at least 500 kW to make the information set out in Annex VII publicly available, except information protected as a trade or business secret. The duty does not apply to data centres used exclusively for defence or civil protection.

Annex VII's minimum information covers the data centre's name, owner, operator, start-of-operations date and municipality, its floor area, installed power and annual data traffic and storage volumes, and its performance against key indicators including energy consumption, power utilisation, temperature set points, waste heat utilisation, water usage and renewable energy use. The Commission maintains a European database compiling this information, published at an aggregated level.

Member States are separately encouraged to have data centres of 1 MW or more follow the European Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency. Article 12(1) carried its own transposition date of 15 May 2024, distinct from the Directive's general 11 October 2025 transposition deadline that governs Article 12(2) to (5) and the rest of Annex VII.

Source: Full text of law

Every entry cites the instrument it describes. None of it is legal advice: verify a citation before relying on it. Full sourcing: read the methodology. The rest of the record: all jurisdictions.