The PM met with Google whilst travelling for his economic mission in California.
Although the American technology giant considers creating a unit in Luxembourg in the context of data security, the news about the long-stalled Google data centre in Bissen was rather negative.
According to the PM, the data centre is not a "priority" for Google, due to the "geopolitical situation", as well as unanswered questions concerning energy supply. Although the project has not been completely scratched from the agenda, it cannot be considered a priority at the moment.
"Meetings concerning land allocation are foreseen in next the year, but for me the first step is talk about the presence of Google in Luxembourg, and not the data centre in Bissen. This would be the first step to a meaningful and trustworthy relationship with a big company like Google", the PM argued.
Read also: Mouvement Ecologique condems plans for Google data centre in Bissen
A business case with a long history
First contact between Google and the Luxembourgish government took place in 2016. The potential development was subsequently made public by an announcement made by the Luxembourgish politician Etienne Schneider in July 2017, the same year that Google purchased land in Bissen.
In January 2019, the municipality of Bissen modified the general development plan (PAG), making way for the data centre which would be located at the "Busbierg" area. In November 2019, RTL had an exclusive interview with an official Google representative in Brussels, shortly after which a town meeting in Bissen took place.
In the following months, the data centre in Bissen was subject to recurring debates, with concrete information about the project's progress lacking.
According to the "memorandum of understanding" with Google, a building permit for the project has to be requested by the beginning of the year 2024, at the latest.
Report by Jeannot Ries from November 2019 (LU, FR)
