On 21 September 2026, the European Commission published a text for a common Union rating scheme for data centres and launched a consultation on minimum performance standards. These developments are easy to compress into the claim that every EU data centre now needs an energy certificate. That would conflate an existing reporting framework, a new rating text and a possible future legal threshold.
Reporting is the established starting point
The recast Energy Efficiency Directive provides the basis for disclosure of data centre energy performance and sustainability information. Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 established information and key performance indicators for reporting to a European database. Whether an individual facility falls within a reporting requirement depends on its characteristics and the implementation and reporting arrangements in the relevant Member State. The existence of an EU database is not, by itself, a facility-specific applicability decision.
The published rating text uses reported information
The Commission's September 2026 delegated-regulation text sets out a second step. Indicators shown on an electronic label would be selected from data already reported by operators, and the European database would generate labels automatically at the end of a reporting period. The intended uses are greater transparency over energy and water use, more meaningful comparison of data centres in the same region, and better information for policy and procurement. This is not accurately described as buying an additional third-party certification.
For an operator, reliable source records and consistent reporting boundaries matter more immediately than a marketing claim about a future grade. Energy and water data, renewable energy information, waste-heat information, facility boundaries and reporting periods should be traceable. These are practical preparation steps, not a claim that every facility faces an identical new data request. The text's final legal status and specific implementation details need to be checked before an operator says it has an EU rating.
Minimum performance standards remain a separate proposal
The Commission opened a public consultation on minimum performance standards on 21 September 2026, with input invited until 14 December 2026. It plans a legislative proposal for the second quarter of 2027. This is a process for deciding whether and how minimum requirements might be introduced; it is not an EU-wide performance threshold already in force in 2026. A label intended to disclose and compare performance and a future minimum requirement would serve different purposes.
Operators should therefore handle current reporting and the monitoring of proposed rules as separate workstreams. A buyer asking a supplier to provide an “EU data centre rating” should clarify whether it wants currently reported performance information, a future electronic label, or evidence against a voluntary metric. This distinction avoids demanding a document that cannot yet be provided, or presenting a proposed measure as an existing certification.
Sources: European Commission, Energy performance of data centres; delegated-regulation text and annexes; minimum-performance consultation announcement. Checked 4 October 2026.
Prepared by 绿色方舟（深圳）认证有限公司. For a facility-specific assessment, verify the applicable Member State reporting route and the final legal text before treating a label or threshold as operative.
