EU AI Act transparency fight: Brussels sued over data centre silence

Brussels is being sued for staying quiet. On 30 September, Lighthouse Reports announced a complaint to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee. The target is the European Commission's refusal to disclose data centre energy and water figures.

The filing contrasts the EU's right-to-know rules with the AI build-out it is trying to regulate. It lands after a year in which reporters from more than a dozen newsrooms tried to obtain indicators that data centre operators must report under the EU Energy Efficiency Directive. The Commission holds the full dataset but has declined to release it. The dispute is not about whether the numbers exist, but about who gets to see them.

Two things are happening in Brussels this week. Trump's White House announced a voluntary AI pact on 29 September. The president described it as "almost like a constitution" and promised "tremendous self-policing" from the companies involved, according to The Guardian's report on 30 September.

Meanwhile, EU institutions are accused of the opposite: hiding data that would let anyone verify what AI infrastructure does to Europe's grid and water supply. The timing is awkward. Washington offers companies a voluntary framework, while Brussels is taken to a compliance committee for not releasing mandatory reporting it already collects. Neither side has published the underlying figures.