---
title: Data Centre Protests Spread to 15 European Countries After US Voters Rejected Them at the Ballot Box
description: Over 100 groups in 15 countries protest on 6th and 7th November for a data centre moratorium. Where Europe already limits new data centres.
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-11-06T07:45:00.035Z
updated: 2026-11-06T07:45:00.043Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/data-centre-protests-europe-moratorium
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-17489158.webp
categories: Science & Tech, EU Focus
content_type: News
region: Europe
publication: Sovereign Magazine
---

More than 100 campaign groups in 15 European countries are taking to the streets on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th November to call for a moratorium on large data centres. The protests, organised under the name Stop Dirty Data Centres, arrive three days after American voters turned against data centre projects in almost every local ballot where they had the chance.

Events are planned in Ireland, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Spain, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom, among others. Organisers list marches, public meetings, petitions, walking tours, cycle rides and poetry readings. In Dublin, marchers gather at the Garden of Remembrance at noon on Saturday and walk to the Dáil for 2pm. In London, campaigners are holding a press statement outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on Friday morning, with a further event in the Brick Lane area of east London, where a data centre development has met local opposition. Other actions include a protest outside the Polish parliament in Warsaw and a demonstration outside a Microsoft data centre in Denmark.

Owen Espley, coordinator of StopDirtyDataCentres.eu, said the groups are calling on political leaders 'to implement moratoria on large-scale data centres at European, national and local levels'. Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Foxglove are among the organisations backing the protests.

## US Midterm Data Centre Ballot Measures

Americans voted on 41 local data centre measures in 10 states on Tuesday 3rd November, according to Ballotpedia's count. Voters sided against data centres in all but one, in Harwood, North Dakota. Ohio alone held 21 of the votes. Before polling day, Sovereign reported on [how opposition to a data centre next door became a midterm issue](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/data-centres-midterms-voters).

The industry has started to respond. OpenAI has launched what Reuters described as a charm offensive to change voters' minds, including a pledge to stop signing non-disclosure agreements with local officials and to cover the cost of the power its data centres use. On Thursday, AI chip stocks fell sharply in New York: by mid-morning Nvidia was down 6.3% and Advanced Micro Devices 13.1%, the Associated Press reported, while South Korea's Kospi index fell 5.3%.

## Data Centre Restrictions Already in Place in Europe

Several European governments and cities had limited new data centres well before this weekend's protests.

**Ireland.** Data centres used 23% of Ireland's metered electricity in 2025, up from 5% in 2015, according to the Central Statistics Office. New grid connections in the Dublin area were effectively frozen for three years until January 2026, when stricter connection rules replaced the freeze.

**Scotland.** On 16th September, the Scottish Parliament voted by 80 to 26 that no planning decisions should be made on hyperscale data centres until the Scottish Government publishes national planning guidance, due within 12 months. BBC Scotland counted at least 23 data centre projects in the planning system in June.

**Denmark.** The Danish parliament adopted an emergency grid plan on 1st October that puts most large data centres last in the queue for electricity connections, behind households, defence, healthcare and green transition projects. Requests for new connections had reached about 60 gigawatts, against peak national demand of about 7 gigawatts.

**Amsterdam.** The city paused new data centres for a year in 2019 and, in April 2025, barred new data centres or expansions until at least 2030, Reuters reported.

**United Kingdom.** The UK government has said it has no plans to introduce a moratorium on planning approvals for data centres, in its response to a parliamentary petition that called for one.

## Europe's Plan to Triple Data Centre Capacity

The protests target the centre of Europe's technology plans. Under the Cloud and AI Development Act, now before the European Parliament, the European Commission aims to triple the EU's data centre capacity within five to seven years, with acceleration zones where permits move faster. Bids for up to seven EU-backed AI gigafactories close on 12th November. You can read where each part of that plan stands in our report on [Europe's tech sovereignty package five months on](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/eu-tech-sovereignty-five-months-on).

Money is already flowing. Annual investment in European data centre projects has risen from €12 billion in 2020 to between €25 billion and €26 billion this year, and PwC expects €176 billion of spending between 2026 and 2031.

Supporters of the build-out say that without its own computing power, Europe would run its AI on American and Chinese infrastructure, the dependency the sovereignty plan was written to end. Campaigners say households pay the price through energy bills, water supplies, land and housing.

## What the Data Centre Backlash Means for You

If you live near a proposed site, Scotland and Denmark show the two tools governments reach for first: planning permission and grid access. Both can stop a project without a formal ban.

If you invest in AI infrastructure, this week has added a new risk to watch alongside chips and power prices: whether a site can win local approval at all.

If your business relies on cloud services held in Europe, the EU's gigafactories and sovereign cloud contracts still need physical sites, and each new pause narrows the map of where they can go.

## FAQ

**Q: What is a moratorium on data centres?**
A moratorium on data centres is a temporary halt on approving or building new facilities, usually while a government or council writes rules on energy, water, planning or environmental impact. It is not a permanent ban, and it normally ends on a set date or once new guidance is published. Some moratoria apply only to large sites above a power threshold, such as 50 megawatts.

**Q: Why are people against data centres?**
People who oppose data centres usually point to higher electricity bills, pressure on local water supplies, the loss of farmland and open land, noise from cooling systems and backup generators, and the small number of permanent jobs compared with the size of the sites. Others object to the carbon emissions linked to the extra power demand.

**Q: Do AI data centres use a lot of water?**
Many large data centres use water to cool their servers, and use is highest in hot, dry weather at sites with evaporative cooling. The amount varies widely with design and climate. Sites with closed-loop or air cooling use far less water, though some of them use more electricity instead.