The data center decree passes the Council of State after a long discussion and clears its approval in the Council of Ministers

The Royal Decree to increase the regulatory requirements of data centers has passed through the Council of State, where its critics had hoped that the text could be blocked by the procedure used by the Government, and is headed to the Council of Ministers, with the possibility of being approved next Tuesday.

The Council of State has not yet made public its opinion on the decree, but it has already included it among the matters dealt with by the body, with a detail that suggests that the text has been the subject of a deep debate: The Royal Decree Project that regulates the requirements of energy sustainability, environmental and resilience and digital sovereignty applicable to data centers appears as being dispatched this same Friday, not on Thursday like the rest of the day's matters dealt with in the ordinary session of the body, which is when it usually occurs. meet.

The main legal doubt with which the text reached the entity chaired by Carmen Calvo was that the Government had not resorted to the Tris mechanism, a mandatory step in many issues and which entails notifying Brussels to examine the regulatory project for three months with a view to understanding whether or not it damages the internal market. One of the aspects that fall under this aspect is related to digital services, an area where data centers could fit.

In fact, the National Markets and Competition Commission itself stated in its report that, in its opinion, the mechanism should be evoked given the issues to which the project alludes, especially in its mentions of technological sovereignty.

Even the European Commission contacted the Government to remind it of the issues on which it is obliged to consult after several private requests from companies with interests in Spain in a communication to which EL MUNDO had access.

Now, the path is clear for the Government, which would have options to approve the decree in the next Council of Ministers, which establishes obligations for data centers in terms of renewable energy consumption, time correlation and efficiencies that today are considered unfulfillable by the industry as a whole.