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Data centres of national strategic interest: the Government commissioner

6 min read

A chimney and cooling tower of a decommissioned power plant, in black and white, against a rural landscape
A decommissioned power plant can become a multi-billion-euro data campus — if a Government commissioner coordinates the permitting.

On 23 July 2026 Italy’s Council of Ministers declared two new data-centre programmes “of paramount national strategic interest”, worth €8 billion combined: “Equinix per l’Italia”, seven data processing centres in the Milan metropolitan area, and “Cavour Hyperscale Campus”, inside the former power plant at Trino, in the province of Vercelli. It is the third time in 2026 the Government has used this tool — EdgeConneX was the first, in May — and for anyone designing, tendering for or cabling one of these facilities, the declaration is not just a headline: it changes who decides, how many days a public body has to respond, and how much room is left to adjust technical specifications once the process is under way.

What the Council of Ministers actually decided

In press release No. 182, adopted at the 5.57pm meeting at Palazzo Chigi on a proposal from the Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, the two programmes are described with precise figures. “Equinix per l’Italia” covers seven new data centres at Settimo Milanese and Cusago, in the Milan hinterland: €4 billion in direct investment between 2026 and 2033, over €5 billion in estimated indirect output, around 1,500 workers during construction and more than 500 permanent jobs once operational. “Cavour Hyperscale Campus” will instead rise on the site of the former Galileo Ferraris power plant at Trino: roughly €4 billion in investment, 300-400 MW of capacity, an average of 1,200 construction workers and 300-350 permanent technicians, with a services conference expected by the end of 2026, authorisation by the end of 2027 and operations starting by the end of 2028.

The tool: Article 13 of Decree-Law 104/2023

The legal basis is not new: it is Article 13 of Decree-Law No. 104 of 10 August 2023, converted with amendments by Law No. 136 of 9 October 2023. Paragraph 2 defines what can receive this declaration: “direct investment programmes, including foreign ones, excluding programmes concerning public works, on Italian territory with an overall value of not less than one billion euro.” It is therefore not, by law, a tool reserved for foreign investors alone — but the programmes declared so far in 2026, EdgeConneX, Vantage, and now Equinix and Cavour Hyperscale Campus, all trace back to international groups, consistent with the size threshold the law requires.

What the commissioner can actually do

Paragraph 3 provides that a decree of the President of the Council appoints, in agreement with the president of the relevant region, a special Government commissioner — unpaid, drawing on the Ministry’s “attracting and unblocking investment” mission unit. It is the commissioner, not the individual municipality or heritage authority, who convenes the services conference and issues the single authorisation into which, by law, “all acts of concession, authorisation, consent, agreement, opinion and clearance, however named” converge (paragraph 5): a measure that replaces ordinary authorisations for all purposes and also stands as an amendment to the applicable town-planning instruments (paragraph 6). Paragraph 4 adds the power most relevant to anyone working on these sites: the commissioner may issue orders departing from any law other than criminal law — subject to the anti-mafia code and the golden-power regime of Decree-Law 21/2012 — and the administrations consulted have fifteen days to respond; once that period elapses, the process continues regardless, even without their opinion.

Two different tools, not one

Anyone following data centres in Italy now has more than one reference to keep separate. The PUCD we wrote about on 22 July covers the environmental impact assessment and integrated environmental authorisation for any facility above a power threshold, regardless of who is investing: a ten-month procedure, 90 days from the STMG for the environmental dossier. The bill reclassifying data centres as national strategic infrastructure, still before the Senate — the “second track still in motion” we mentioned in that same piece — would introduce an automatic, sector-wide classification, not yet in force. Article 13 of Decree-Law 104/2023, by contrast, has existed since 2023, does not target data centres specifically but any large investment programme above one billion euro, and applies case by case through a Council of Ministers resolution: it is the tool the Government has actually been using, since May, to fast-track the projects announced one after another. A facility declared strategic under Article 13 still goes through the EIA — but with an additional commissioner and services conference, not instead of the PUCD.

What to do

  • Check whether the client or contract you are working on falls among the programmes already declared of strategic interest: the Council of Ministers’ press releases on governo.it are the updated public list — today at least EdgeConneX, Vantage, Equinix and Cavour Hyperscale Campus.
  • If it does, identify the commissioner appointed for that programme by presidential decree: they are the point of contact who convenes the services conference and signs the single authorisation, not the municipality or region acting alone.
  • Bear in mind that the administrations involved have only fifteen days to respond to the commissioner’s requests: if you have to provide a technical report, an opinion or a certification within that services conference, that is the real time available, not the timescale of an ordinary procedure.
  • Lock down cabling specifications, availability class and redundancy at the tender stage: an authorisation that also stands as a town-planning amendment leaves little room to change the project once the site is under way.
  • Do not assume strategic-interest status replaces oversight of ownership structures: paragraph 7 leaves the golden-power regime of Decree-Law 21/2012 untouched, a separate screening track that still applies.

The bottom line

Eight billion euro declared strategic in a single press release, in a year that had already seen others for EdgeConneX and Vantage: 2026 is the first year Italy has systematically used a Government commissioner to fast-track its largest data centres. For those who cable and certify these facilities — the work we follow from site survey through to handover, across our data-centre projects — the operational lesson is the same as for any accelerated procedure: speed is earned by whoever arrives with the specifications already settled, not by whoever discovers them while the commissioner is already signing.

Are you a subcontractor on a project declared of national strategic interest, or do you need to estimate timescales for a contract on a commissioned site? Talk to an engineer: an initial discussion helps identify which specifications to lock down before the services conference closes.

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