荷兰非营利新闻机构“灯塔报道”本周提出申诉称，欧盟委员会不让公众了解每个数据中心分别消耗多少电力和水资源。
Lighthouse Reports, a Dutch non-profit newsroom, lodged a complaint this week, saying the European Commission keeps the public from seeing how much power and water each data center uses.
他们依据《奥胡斯公约》提出申诉。这是一项有约束力的条约，赋予公众获取环境信息和参与环境决策的权利；欧盟于2005年加入该公约。
They classified it under the Aarhus Convention, a binding treaty that grants people the right to access environmental information and to participate in environmental decision-making; the EU joined it in 2005.
申诉称，欧盟委员会已在该行业周围筑起一道“沉默之墙”。欧盟官员意图阻止外界获取数据中心性能数据，并使数量本就有限的数据难以获取。此外，争议源于2024年通过的一项法律，该法律禁止布鲁塞尔和各国首都分享单个站点的数据。由于科技企业以商业利益为由推动这种保密做法，欧盟委员会因此只能公布汇总数据。
The complaint states that the Commission has created a ‘wall of silence’ around the sector, claiming that EU officials intended to prevent access to data on data center performance and have made the little data provided difficult Moreover, the dispute stems from a 2024 law that prohibits Brussels and the national capitals from sharing data on individual sites. Since the tech companies campaigned for this kind of secrecy on the grounds of their business interests, the Commission is therefore only able to release totals.
数据显示，相关消耗量正迅速增长。欧盟委员会表示，2025年欧洲数据中心的耗电量达到20.7太瓦时，与克罗地亚全国的耗电量相当；耗水量则超过800万立方米。
The figures show rapid growth: in 2025, Europe’s data centers used 20.7 terawatt-hours of power, the same amount as Croatia, and more than 8 million cubic meters of water, the Commission states.
2024年，数据中心的耗电量增长26%，耗水量增长52%，不过这些数字所依据的数据并不完整。
Also, power consumption increased by 26% and water consumption by 52% in 2024, the figures being based on incomplete data.
与此同时，随着人工智能基础设施热潮推动需求增长，欧盟希望将数据中心容量扩大至三倍，以追赶美国和中国。随着能源账单上涨，欧洲各地反对建设数据中心的声浪日益增强。
Meanwhile, the EU wants to triple its data center capacity to keep up with the US and China, as the AI infrastructure boom drives demand. Local pushback against the sites is growing across Europe as energy bills rise.
上周，欧盟委员会公布了一项评级标签。从明年夏季起，数据中心将根据能源效率、用水量和清洁电力使用情况接受A至G级评级。“灯塔报道”表示，该标签仍会隐瞒总消耗量以及判断一个站点碳足迹所需的其他数据。
Last week, the Commission unveiled a rating label that will grade data centers from A to G on energy efficiency, water use, and clean power from next summer. Lighthouse says the label still hides total use and other figures needed to judge a site’s carbon footprint.
申诉称：“在实际消耗数据而非比率之间作出选择，并不存在技术条件方面的依据。这是一种偏袒行业而非公共利益的选择。”
“The choice of ratios over actual consumption figures has no basis in technical constraints, it is a choice that favors the industry over public interest,” the complaint says.
正在参与欧盟扩大数字能力计划的保守派欧洲议员迭戈·索利尔表示，透明度“应当成为起点”。
Diego Solier, a conservative MEP working on the EU’s plan to expand digital capacity, said transparency “should be the starting point”.
不过，索利尔补充说，企业不应被要求披露高度敏感的商业数据。他没有就该投诉发表评论，因为投诉当时尚未公开。
However, Solier added that firms should not be required to disclose highly sensitive business data. He did not comment on the complaint, which was not yet public.
《奥胡斯公约》履约委员会将在11月决定该投诉是否符合受理条件，日后还可能裁定欧盟违反了条约。欧盟委员会未回应POLITICO的置评请求。
The Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee will decide in November whether the complaint is admissible, and it could later find that the EU broke the treaty. The Commission did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.