The European Parliament will switch to French ​search engine Qwant from Google, ‌it said on Wednesday, underscoring Europe’s push to reduce its reliance on U.S. technology ​in favour of local alternatives.

The ​European Commission will later on Wednesday ⁠announce measures on chips, cloud computing ​services and AI as part of ​its “Buy and Use European” drive.

“From 4 June 2026, Qwant will become the default search engine ​on the European Parliament’s Microsoft ​Edge and Mozilla Firefox browsers,” a Parliament spokesperson ‌said ⁠in an email.

The change will be applied automatically, though users will still be able to select alternative search ​engines.

“It is ​part of ⁠a larger framework of actions aimed at reducing EP ​reliance on non-EU digital tools ​and ⁠promoting European-based, privacy-focused services,” the spokesperson said.

The Parliament has 720 lawmakers, along ⁠with ​thousands of assistants and ​administrative staff. Euractiv first reported the switch.

Source:  Reuters