ITALY Trends and Developments Contributed by: Maria Cristina Breida, Giuseppe Bovenzi, Valerio Vinci and Sonia Marlazzi, EY Società tra Avvocati
information reported by data centres subject to these transparency obligations. Member states are further encouraged by the Direc - tive to prompt owners and operators of data centres with an IT power demand of 1 MW or more to have regard to the best practices contained in the most up-to-date version of the European Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency. The EED expressly delegates to the Commission the power to adopt delegated acts pursuant to Article 33 (3) thereof. In exercise of that delegation, the Commis - sion adopted Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364 of 14 March 2024 (the “Delegated Regu - lation”), which establishes the first phase of a com - mon Union rating scheme for data centres, specifying the information and key performance indicators to be communicated to the European database, the com - mon measurement and calculation methodology, and the first set of sustainability indicators to be derived from the reported data. The key performance indicators set out in Annex II are divided into three categories: energy and sustainabil - ity indicators (including, for example, total energy con - sumption, total water intake and reused waste heat), information and communications technology (ICT) capacity indicators (covering both servers, assessed on the basis of the Server Efficiency Rating Tool – SERT, or an equivalent tool, and storage equipment), and data traffic indicators. On the basis of those key performance indicators, Annex III establishes four sustainability indicators: Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE), the Energy Reuse Factor (ERF) and the Renewable Energy Fac - tor (REF). Consistent with the EU’s broader climate agenda, Arti - cle 12 of the EED also required the Commission to assess the data collected and submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council, to be accompa - nied, where appropriate, by legislative proposals con - taining further measures to improve energy efficiency, including provisions on minimum performance stand - ards, and by a feasibility assessment of the transition towards a carbon-neutral data centre sector.
In July 2025, in accordance with the EED and the Delegated Regulation, the first technical report was published by the European Commission, assessing the energy efficiency and sustainability of data centres in the European Union for the first reporting period. Drawing on the PUE, WUE, ERF and REF indicators established in Annex III to the Delegated Regula - tion, the Commission identified the need for further investment and optimisation with respect to energy and water consumption, noted an already appreci - able commitment to renewable energy procurement, and pointed to the need for national and local policy interventions as regards waste heat reuse. Italy Italy’s data centre regulatory framework combines the transposition of EU obligations with a set of additional measures adopted in the broader context of integrat - ing data centres into the national electricity system, guaranteeing the competitiveness of enterprises and accelerating industrial decarbonisation. Decree-Law No 131/2024 transposed, in Article 16, the transparency obligations for data centres set out in the EED, requiring operators of data centres with an installed IT power demand of at least 500 kW to publish annually, by 15 May of each year, the infor - mation and key performance indicators prescribed by the EED and detailed in the Delegated Regulation. The exemptions for defence, civil protection, trade secrets and confidentiality mirror those established at EU level. Beyond the transposition of EU obligations, the Ital - ian legislature has intervened with Decree-Law No 21/2026, adopted on 20 February 2026, converted into law by Law No 49 of 10 April 2026, to address the procedural framework governing data centre develop - ment. For any company seeking to build, expand or oper - ate a data centre in Italy, Article 8 of the Decree-Law is the primary legal reference point, as it establishes a unified procedure for the granting of authorisations for the construction, expansion and operation of data centres and their associated connection networks.
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