Rating scheme moves into formal EU scrutiny
The European Commission adopted a delegated regulation on 21 September establishing a common sustainability rating scheme for individual EU data centres above 500 kW. The act now enters a two-month scrutiny period in which the European Parliament or Council can object before it takes effect. The institutions cannot amend the delegated text during that scrutiny process.
The scheme is designed to turn data on energy and water efficiency into an electronic label and to show how facilities interact with the energy system, including waste-heat reuse, clean-energy generation and flexibility. The Commission expects the first individual data-centre labels to appear in 2027.
Existing reporting becomes a comparable label
Large data-centre operators already report energy-performance and sustainability information to the European database under the Energy Efficiency Directive and the 2024 delegated regulation. The new measure builds on that reporting system by using the submitted indicators for a common rating, rather than creating the underlying reporting obligation for the first time.
The distinction matters for operators and customers. Reuters reports that the rating scheme does not impose caps on energy or water use and does not require facilities to disclose their total power consumption through the label. Its immediate function is transparency and comparison, including information about water stress and whether a facility can provide services such as waste-heat reuse to the local energy system.
Minimum standards are a separate 2027 track
Alongside the rating act, the Commission opened a 12-week consultation on possible minimum performance standards for data centres. Submissions are due by 14 December 2026, and the Commission says a legislative proposal is planned for the second quarter of 2027.
No minimum energy or water-efficiency threshold was adopted on 21 September. Under the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Commission can propose further measures, including minimum standards, but those requirements remain a future policy track that should not be conflated with the rating label now under scrutiny.
Why it matters and what remains unsettled
The policy arrives as the EU seeks a large expansion of computing capacity for cloud and AI workloads. The Commission says it wants to triple European data-centre capacity over roughly the next five to seven years, while acknowledging the resulting pressure on electricity grids, water use and carbon emissions. A common label gives regulators, buyers and operators a shared set of resource-efficiency signals as that build-out accelerates.
The scheme is not yet in force, and there is no operational evidence yet showing how the labels will affect procurement, siting or efficiency investment. The next concrete milestones are the end of the Parliament and Council scrutiny period, publication of the first labels in 2027 and the separate legislative proposal on minimum performance standards.