Digital Europe

Digital Europe (stylized as DIGITALEUROPE) is a Brussels-based technology industry lobby group whose members include Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta. Reporting by Investigate Europe and other media found that the organization had requested confidentiality protections for individual data center emissions data that were later reflected in EU legislation.

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364

This regulation requires data centers with an IT load above 500 kW to report annual environmental metrics, including energy use, water use, renewable energy share and cooling efficiency to a European database. Article 5 of the regulation states that the commission and member states concerned "shall keep confidential all information and key performance indicators for individual datacenters"^[1] communicated to the database. Only aggregated national and EU-wide stats are made public.

Investigation

In April 2026 an investigation by Investigate Europe, the Guardian and other media partners ^[2][3] found that the European Commission incorporated a confidentiality clause into an EU law to prevent the public from seeing the environmental data for individual data centers. ^[1] Microsoft, Digital Europe and Video Games Europe each submitted near-identical demands to classify individual data center information as confidential. Researchers at Corporate Europe Observatory found that the Commission's clause was copy-pasted almost verbatim from an amendment submitted by Microsoft.

The clause has already been used to deny access to the data. A senior official reminded national authorities of the confidentiality obligation and noted that requests for access from the "media or the public" had "so far" all been refused. ^[4]

Ten legal scholars told Investigate Europe that the clause may violate the EU's obligations under the Aarhus Convention ^[5], an international treaty guaranteeing public access to environmental information.

The Commission's internal view is that publishing information on individual data centers could discourage operators from reporting despite their legal obligations. However the EU's own figures show that only 36% of eligible data centers have supported reports so far. ^[6] The report also says that 80% of the data it received is deemed to be reliable.

Statements

According to Investigate Europe a Microsoft representative said that the company was "taking further steps to increase openness while protecting confidential business information" and that Digital Europe did not respond to the request for comment. The Commission and Video Games Europe declined to comment.

Consumers can't compare providers' environmental footprint before choosing a cloud/AI service. Communities living near facilities can't get facility-specific data even under freedom of information requests.