The European Parliament is gearing to make French search engine Qwant its default search tool this week, replacing Google on parliamentary computers, informs an internal email obtained by Euractiv.
More precisely, the change is scheduled to take effect on Thursday, one day after the European Commission is expected to unveil a new package of legislative proposals aimed at enhancing the bloc’s technological autonomy and reducing reliance on US-based tech companies.
The development follows calls made by several MEPs in November urging Parliament President Roberta Metsola to replace a range of digital services supplied by non-European companies.
Parliament officials said the decision is consistent with the institution’s existing commitments to digital sovereignty and stronger protection of personal information.
Lawmakers have speficially specifically criticized the requirement to use search engines such as Bing, Google, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo through Microsoft’s Edge browser, instead recommending European services including Qwant, Ecosia and Startpage.
The choice of Qwant is notable because the company has historically relied on Microsoft’s Bing search infrastructure to generate results. In recent years, however, Qwant has worked alongside the European search platform Ecosia to develop its own independent search index, known as Staan.
Members of the European Parliament will still be free to manually select another search engine, including Google, if they wish. However, Qwant will become the default option installed on parliamentary devices.
According to the email circulated to members of Parliament, searches entered into the address bar of Firefox and Microsoft Edge browsers will automatically be processed through Qwant.
The French search engine promotes itself as a privacy-oriented service that does not track users or collect personal data for advertising purposes.
Google still continues to hold an overwhelming position in the search market, accounting for roughly 90% of searches across Europe.
Google did not immediately comment on the decision.
