The European Commission says expanding AI infrastructure is essential to Europe’s technological sovereignty. Yet, it has not shown why:
- Europe needs to triple data center capacity,
- How existing infrastructure is being used,
- How rapid expansion can be reconciled with Europe’s climate, energy and democratic commitments.
There is no solid evidence for the need to triple data center capacity, with evidence to suggest that many data centers in Europe are underutilized and that new data center development will be dominated by US tech and co-location firms who prioritize serving the largest multinational corporate cloud providers, most of which are US-based.
Nevertheless, the European Commission is aggressively dismantling environmental protections and democratic oversight to achieve this target. Instead of scrambling behind superpowers in a race with no clear finish line, Europe needs to make clear-headed decisions backed by solid evidence. Europe should not rush into an infrastructure race simply because other global powers are doing so. It should make evidence-based decisions about its actual digital needs and pursue an industrial strategy that balances technological ambitions with environmental limits, social impacts, jobs and workers’ rights.
In our op-ed for Tech Policy Press, we argue that until these questions are answered, Europe should pause the construction of new large-scale data centers. A Europe-wide moratorium would create the space to assess whether this expansion is necessary, sustainable and in the public interest.
Thanks to co-authors Aurora Gomez Delgado, Fieke Jansen, Rosi Leonard, Alex Lutz and Enol Nieto.
