EU proposes to exempt AI gig factories from environmental assessments

Data centers, AI gig factories and affordable housing can be exempted from mandatory environmental impact assessments in the EU under a proposal that pushes the European Commission’s rollback of green regulations.

The latest in a series of red tape-cutting packages aims to speed up approval processes for critical projects and reduce the scope of environmental reporting requirements for companies.

The proposed revision would add data centers to the list of strategic sectors, in line with the EU’s ambitions to become a global leader in AI and affordable housing to improve labor mobility. Member States would be free to decide whether such projects should be subject to an environmental impact assessment.

Other parts of the simplification plan include eliminating a hazardous chemicals database that lists “substances of concern in products”; Remove requirements for EU polluters to have authorized representatives in the member states where they sell their products; and push the…