The European Parliament will switch its default search engine from Google to Qwant, a French alternative, starting June 4, 2026. This move is part of the EU's broader strategy to reduce reliance on U.S. technology and promote European digital services.
This move signals a growing trend of regulatory and policy efforts within the EU to assert digital sovereignty and challenge the dominance of U.S. tech giants in key areas like search and AI infrastructure.
The European Parliament announced it will transition from using Google as its default search engine to Qwant, a French alternative, effective June 4, 2026. This decision is a significant step in the European Union's ongoing effort to decrease its dependence on U.S. technology and foster the growth of domestic digital solutions. The change will be automatically applied to the Parliament's Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox browsers, though users will retain the option to select other search engines. A Parliament spokesperson stated that this initiative is part of a larger framework designed to minimize the use of non-EU digital tools and champion European, privacy-focused services. The Parliament, which comprises 720 lawmakers along with thousands of staff, will implement this change as the European Commission prepares to unveil new measures concerning chips, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence as part of its 'Buy and Use European' initiative.
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