In last year’s State of the Union speech, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen argued that European AI was “essential for our future independence”.
Yet her commission’s plan to fast-track data centres across the bloc risks doing the exact opposite: accelerating the very reliance on US Big Tech that it claims to be escaping.
In the process it will trample over environmental protections and override public participation rights.
As von der Leyen gears up to talk up her data centre plans in the State of the Union address next Wednesday (16 September), MEPs must question who will own and benefit from these data centres.
The dirty reality behind the EU’s data centre expansion
