France is considering legislation aimed at improving the regulation of data centers in the country. The French Senate has recently had a reading of the proposed Establishment of data centers on French territory bill which enhances the role of local authorities in planning and coordinating data center projects through territorial coherence plans (SCoT). Strategic orientations must consider energy transition, land use, regional balance, and infrastructure attractiveness.
The bill was first tabled on February 17 by Senator David Ros and has had one reading thus far by the Senate to make the necessary modifications. Curiously though, for a bill that proposes regulation of data centers, several provisions that acted as safeguards were removed by the Senate from the original text. These include a fee on water consumption, taxation of digital infrastructure, mandatory heat recovery plans, and a national research program on data infrastructure.
Senators also introduced an amendment that obliges the French Government to submit reports to Parliament that allow certain data centers to be classified as projects of Major National Interest (PINM). This designation would speed up procedures, including compatibility with town planning documents, electricity network connections, and recognition of imperative reasons of major public interest (RIIPM). Before PINM status is granted, the project leader must organize a committee with the prefect, municipalities, and intermunicipal cooperation bodies (EPCI) as reported by vie publique.
The Senate also requires the government to submit a parliamentary report on national data center deployment. The report must address economic, environmental, land use, and attractiveness issues, and propose measures to strengthen national capacities in data storage, processing, transport, and dissemination.
The Bill will soon be examined by the National Assembly.