The European Commission (EC) has opened a new data center in Betzdorf, Luxembourg, to host European public sector services. The building replaces a data center in the old EC headquarters which was condemned because of asbestos contamination.

The data center is a collaboration between the Commission and the Luxembourg government, and will house some 1400 systems supporting the European Single Market, climate policy, health and food safety and structural funds. It will also hold the Commission’s internal administrative systems for payroll and the like. It was opened on 12 December by Commissioner for the Digital Economy Günther H. Oettinger, and Luxembourg’s prime minister 

luxembourg cityscape thinkstock serr novik lead
– Thinkstock / SerrNovik

Collaboration

The new facility was precipitated when the old headquarters of the Commission in Luxembourg was condemned. The Jean Monnet building, opened in 1975, was demolished in 2015 after it was found to contain asbestos in 2014, that was making hte staff ill. The building is being replaced by a 23-story building, Jean Monnet II, while the data center has moved to new premises.

The opening comes while the Commission is engaged in a consolidation project. According to the EC press release, the Commission will close more than 30 data rooms in Luxembourg, moving the services into ”two professional Luxembourg-based Tier IV data centers”, 

A clarification from the Commission explains that the two data centers in queston are the new one in Betzdorf, which is owned by the Luxembourg state, and one in Windhof owned by an un-named private company. 

jean monnet building wikimapia
The old jean Monnet building – Wikimapia

In any other country “Tier IV” would narrow the field down, but Luxembourg has at least seven with the top Uptime Institute certification, including four owned by LuxConnect, and others run by EBRC and European Data Hub. .

“Thanks to a fruitful collaboration with the Luxembourg authorities, the Commission is today opening a world class data centrer to ensure its IT infrastructure which is operating EU and pan-European Information systems, is modern, reliable and cost-efficient, said ” said Commissioner Oettinger.