On Tuesday, 19 February 2025, the first meeting of the German Energy Board of the Data Institute took place. As a member of the board, eco’s Managing Director Alexander Rabe is overseeing the energy use case.

How can data centres (DC) be optimally planned and operated? What role does water cooling play and how does the German Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG) affect the industry? In this interview, Peter auf dem Graben, Senior Data Centre Consultant at dc-ce DC-Beratung and expert in data centre planning and operation, explains why precise coordination between IT and facility management is crucial, which technologies drive energy efficiency and how operators should respond to increasing power densities.

Together with 192 other organisations, including Mozilla, Proton, WhatsApp and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), eco Association has signed an open letter to the British Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper.

Dr Judith Puttkammer joined the Advisory Board of the eco Competence Group Mobility in December 2024. In this interview, the expert on data spaces for mobility data talks about the importance of sovereign data spaces, regulatory priorities and the role of innovative technologies. She also provides insights into how she would like to contribute to the work of the competence group with her experience as Deputy Head of Mobility Data Space at acatech and what impetus she hopes to provide for the mobility policy of the future.

The last week of sessions of the 20th German Bundestag is over, the election is in 10 days – and many digital policy projects remain unfinished. At our German Internet Policy Party Check on Tuesday evening, it also became clear that there is a great need for action in digital policy across party lines. eco has published an agenda with ten key demands for a fresh start in digital policy.

At the AI Action Summit 2025 in Paris, global stakeholders from business and politics gathered to discuss the future of artificial intelligence. eco Managing Director Andreas Weiss assesses Europe’s role in this dynamic, between innovation and regulation.

The eco Association is accompanying the election with content - both with papers and digital policy demands from the Internet industry and in direct exchange with digital policy makers.

The last German Bundestag session of the 20th legislative period has come to an end – and elections will take place in just over a week. eco points out that numerous regulatory initiative relevant to the Internet industry have not been completed, partly due to the collapse of the German traffic light coalition. The eco Association calls for the new government to address the necessary legal clarifications for businesses as quickly as possible after the election.