The European Parliament is taking a new step in its policy of reducing dependence on American technology companies, as it is considering replacing the default search engine Google Within the internal working systems for a European alternative, according to a report by Politico, from June 4, the European Parliament will begin using the French search engine Qwant (mentioned in the report as Quant) as the default option when searching through the address bar in Firefox and Microsoft Edge browsers. However, employees will still be able to change settings or use any other search engine manually.
What are the motives for the European Union’s decision to replace Google Engine?
This shift came within a broader trend within the European Union towards what is known as digital sovereignty, that is, reducing dependence on infrastructure and digital services coming from outside Europe, especially from the United States. According to an internal message that was circulated, the aim of the step is to enhance the protection of user data, with the Qwant engine described as a European search engine focused on privacy.
This step does not come separately, but rather within a series of broader European movements to rebuild the technology system within the continent. In the recent period, some government institutions in Europe have tended to reduce reliance on operating systems such as in favor of open source alternatives such as Linuxand replacing meeting tools such as and with local European solutions such as “Visio.” The European Commission is also working on preparing a new policy package to enhance what it calls “technical sovereignty.”
Digital sovereignty is pushing Europe to change the research tools within its institutions
This trend is not limited to Europe only, as entities and users around the world have begun to search for alternatives to traditional search engines such as Google, especially with the broader integration of artificial intelligence technologies into search results. Reports have also indicated that services such as have recorded a significant increase in usage after the recent changes in Google Search, which included greater integration of artificial intelligence results.
