Europe’s Race For AI Leadership Hindered By Soaring Energy Costs

Europe’s Ambitious Vision And Energy Hurdles

Europe is accelerating efforts to strengthen its position in artificial intelligence as governments and technology companies continue investing heavily in data centers and compute infrastructure. At the same time, rising energy costs are increasingly emerging as one of the main obstacles to the continent’s broader AI ambitions.

Building The Infrastructure Amid A Price Surge

European countries are expanding compute capacity and supporting large-scale infrastructure projects aimed at powering next-generation AI systems. However, the rapid growth of energy-intensive data centers is significantly increasing electricity demand at a time of continued geopolitical and energy market volatility. Michael Brown said energy prices remain one of the defining factors shaping where future AI infrastructure will be developed. “If you’re making energy-intensive investments, then you’re going to go to where the cheapest energy is,” Brown said, adding that major future data center investments would likely favour the U.S. or China due to lower energy costs.

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Data Center Growth And The Economic Stakes

Data centers now account for roughly 2% of global electricity consumption, up from 1.7% in 2024, reflecting the growing energy demands associated with AI development and cloud computing. Olivier Darmouni warned that rapid data center expansion could increase regional electricity prices by between 20% and 40% in certain European markets, particularly in areas already facing energy supply pressures. According to Darmouni, this trend risks creating widening disparities across Europe, with regions benefiting from lower energy prices becoming more attractive for investment while higher-cost markets struggle to remain competitive.

Navigating The Development Challenges

Industry analysts also point to several structural challenges affecting Europe’s ability to scale AI infrastructure quickly. Chris Seiple said Europe continues facing disadvantages linked to higher energy costs, the geographic concentration of data center developers and the long timelines required to build supporting infrastructure. Together, these factors are slowing deployment compared with competing markets such as the United States and China.

Regional Winners And Losers

Within Europe, disparities in energy costs are creating clear winners and losers. Vladimir Prodanovic of Nvidia remarked during a conference in Denmark that parts of central Europe have already been outpaced due to exorbitant electricity prices, citing examples from Germany and the U.K. Indeed, data from the International Energy Agency shows that the average price per megawatt in the U.K. and Germany far exceeds that of the U.S., intensifying the competitive pressure.

The Nordic And French Advantage

In contrast, the Nordics and France are emerging as the favored regions for data center investment, bolstered by lower electricity costs and a diverse energy mix. Major tech players such as Microsoft have committed billions to AI infrastructure projects in these regions, with significant investments in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Additionally, experts like Vili Lehdonvirta from the Oxford Internet Institute note that sustained low or even negative electricity pricing, as observed in parts of Finland, offers a considerable economic edge.

Looking Ahead: Integration And Economic Sovereignty

Olivier Darmouni argued that maintaining competitiveness in artificial intelligence will require deeper integration of Europe’s energy systems alongside major investments in electricity generation and storage infrastructure.

Without broader reforms aimed at stabilising long-term energy costs, Europe risks weakening both its position in the global AI race and its broader economic competitiveness.

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Women Make Up A Majority Of The EU’s Science And Technology Workforce But The Real Gap Is Elsewhere

by News Editor

June 25, 2026

Women now make up the majority of the EU’s science and technology workforce. According to Eurostat, in 2025, more than 81.6 million people aged 15 to 74 were employed in science and technology occupations across the EU. Of those, 52.5% were women, equal to 42.8 million women. The number of women in these occupations rose by 27.9% compared with 2015, an increase of more than 9.3 million over a decade.

On the surface, the numbers resemble progress. However, Eurostat’s category requires context before that figure can be read accurately. The data refers to HRST, or Human Resources in Science and Technology, specifically people employed in science and technology occupations. These are roles where the main tasks require professional or technical knowledge in physical and life sciences, but also in social sciences and humanities. That definition is wider and broader than engineering, ICT, laboratory science, or high-tech research alone.

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Zooming In

The gender picture changes once the data moves from a wider definition of the workforce to the narrower scientist-and-engineer (research and manufacturing) subgroup.

Scientists and engineers represented almost a quarter of all people employed in science and technology in the EU in 2025. Eurostat describes scientists and engineers as often being the innovators at the centre of technology-led development, making them an important subgroup to focus on separately.

Women accounted for only 40.8% of scientists and engineers in 2025, despite making up more than half of the wider category. That share has increased by a mere 0.5 percentage points over the past decade. The absolute number of women working as scientists and engineers rose from 5.3 million in 2015 to 8.2 million in 2025, despite the push from national and international organisations to increase the number of women in the field. Europe has expanded the number of women in science and technology occupations over ten years. However, that expansion has not extended equally into the scientist-and-engineer subgroup, where much of Europe’s research and innovation work is conducted.

In 2025, of the 39.4 million women aged 25 to 64 working in science and technology occupations in the EU, 35.5 million worked in service activities. Only 2.7 million worked in manufacturing. Women accounted for 57.5% of science and technology employment in services, but only 31.3% in manufacturing.

In 2025, the highest shares of women employed in science and technology occupations were recorded in Latvia at 62.4%, followed by Hungary’s Great Plain and North region at 61.1%, Estonia at 60.5%, Poland’s Central macroregion at 60.4%, and Lithuania at 60.3%. No EU country recorded a majority of women among science and technology workers in manufacturing.

Break-down

Eurostat’s figures measure employment in broad science and technology occupations. They do not show job security, pay levels, management roles, promotion rates, research leadership, or whether women are concentrated in junior or senior workplace positions.

The classification of “senior” also requires additional explanation. Eurostat reports that 45.9% of science and technology workers aged 25 to 64 in the EU were classified as “senior” HRST in 2025. In this dataset, “senior” refers to workers aged 45 to 64. It does not mean senior manager, senior researcher, team lead, or decision-maker.

A high female share in the wider Human Resource Science and Technology (HRST) category does not parallel equal representation across scientists, engineers, manufacturing roles, senior posts, pay, research funding, or decision-making. These figures also reflect the occupational mix inside each country or region, not only structural progress across all areas of science and technology.

The Case Of Cyprus

Eurostat data places Cyprus’s overall science and technology employment at 37.2% of the labour force in 2025, slightly above the EU-27 figure of 36.9%, and above Greece at 26.8%, Malta at 33.9%, and Turkey at 18.2%. This figure covers the total share of the labour force employed in science and technology across all genders.

Progress Or Work-in-Progress?

52.5% in the broad category. 40.8% among scientists and engineers. 31.3% in manufacturing. Europe’s gender gap in science and technology hasn’t closed yet, and there is still work to be done to encourage and support more women to enter the field, especially in research and manufacturing.

Let’s not wait another decade for another couple of percentage points of hope.

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