EU Data Centre Label: An A–G Sticker, but No Limits on Power or Water
The labelling scheme sets no limits on electricity or water use — but is intended as the opening move toward binding minimum requirements that the Commission will table in spring 2027. The window is tight: member states and the European Parliament have two months to object to the scheme, and industry is already fighting it.
What the Commission has proposed
On Monday, 21 September 2026, the European Commission put forward a delegated regulation requiring data centres in Europe to disclose how efficiently they use energy and water. The scheme applies to facilities with a capacity of 500 kW or more, according to Reuters; per POLITICO, labelling is optional for smaller facilities. Facilities will be assessed on a scale from A to G — for energy efficiency, water usage and share of clean power — modelled on the EU's well-known appliance energy label, POLITICO writes.
The rules are set to apply from August 2027. Euronews gives 15 August 2027 as the expected date of entry into force and generation of the first sustainability labels — provided no one objects to the scheme during the objection period.
The scope is narrower than the scheme might sound. It imposes no limits on energy or water use, and it does not require data centres to disclose their total power consumption, Reuters writes. What will be published, however, is water use relative to local water stress, and the services the facilities provide to the local energy supply — such as waste heat reuse.
How the scheme works
The label is generated automatically once a year from figures companies are already required to report under the EU's energy efficiency rules, POLITICO reports. It is a deliberate design: the Commission is building a visible, easily readable rating system on top of a reporting regime that already exists — rather than introducing an entirely new reporting track.
Legally, this is a delegated regulation that can enter into force without member states and the European Parliament having to approve it. Both national governments and the Parliament do, however, have two months to object; if no one does, the rules take effect. That makes the objection deadline the immediate political pivot point.
The context: rapid growth in power use and capacity
The basis for growth is concrete, but the sources measure it differently. Data centres today account for around 2.5 percent of the EU's electricity consumption, the EU stated in a report in June, according to Reuters. Capacity is expected to more than double by 2030, from 12 GW last year to 28 GW, Reuters writes, citing the same report.
Euronews presents a different, but not contradictory, measure: data centres in the EU used an estimated 70 TWh of electricity in 2024, and consumption is projected to reach 115 TWh by 2030 — enough to supply roughly 32.9 million European homes for an entire year. Whatever the measurement method, the figures point in the same direction: rapidly rising resource use, which is the starting point for the labelling scheme.
The label as an opening move
Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen frames the scheme as a transparency instrument with follow-up measures. "This will provide a lot of transparency and hopefully give these data centres incentives to be as sustainable as possible," Jørgensen said in an interview with POLITICO ahead of the presentation.
That is precisely the point, according to POLITICO: the label is described as the first step in pushing the tech giants toward the EU's climate targets. "But later we will also introduce minimum performance requirements, which will of course put more pressure on those who may not voluntarily want to be as sustainable as we want them to be," Jørgensen added. The requirements are to be tabled in spring 2027, aimed at newly built or retrofitted data centres. It is these requirements — not the label itself — that could genuinely constrain how facilities are built and operated. The timeline is tight: first the minimum requirements proposal in spring 2027, then the label in force in August of the same year.
According to POLITICO, the scheme will be the most comprehensive data centre labelling scheme in the world. Australia and Singapore already have schemes that rate data centres' energy efficiency, but the EU label is additionally to cover water consumption, how clean the electricity is, and whether waste heat is reused.
Industry pushes back
The opposition is already organised. The European industry association European Data Center Association warned in April that the requirements would kill investment, and insisted in June that the EU's AI ambitions must be prioritised over climate goals, POLITICO writes. Euronews also reports that the underlying EU law forcing data centres to disclose their energy use is being challenged by Big Tech lobbyists. The status and strength of this counter-campaign cannot be verified further from the available coverage — but the scheme is not yet secured in law: the objection window is open.
The weak point: poor compliance with reporting duties
The clearest sign of weakness lies in the Commission's own background document. The label is to be generated automatically from figures companies are already required to report — but a report accompanying the proposal concedes that compliance with the existing reporting rules is low: only 36 percent of facilities in the EU submit the required data, POLITICO reports.
That leaves a concrete, open technical question: if nearly two-thirds of facilities do not currently report mandatory data, it is unclear how quickly and reliably the system can generate meaningful A–G labels for the whole sector when the scheme takes effect. Whether the Commission will simultaneously strengthen enforcement of the reporting duty has not been settled.
What comes next
Three things should be watched in the period ahead. First, the objection window: member states and the European Parliament have two months from 21 September to object to the rules, otherwise they take effect. Second, spring 2027, when the Commission — according to Jørgensen — is to table minimum performance requirements for new or retrofitted data centres; that is where the actual regulatory weight lies. Third, the question of how facilities under 500 kW are treated: Reuters gives a 500 kW threshold, while POLITICO describes the label as optional for smaller facilities — the precise treatment of these facilities has not been finally settled.
Taken together, this is an opening phase, not an outcome. The scheme provides visibility, not limits — but it sets the timeline for the binding phase that follows, and the frame for an industry already fighting both the scheme and the law it is built on.