Qwant

Qwant is a French search engine founded in 2013 as a privacy-preserving, European-sovereign alternative to Google. It does not track users, does not build personal profiles and is hosted on infrastructure within the European Union. The company is headquartered in Paris and has historically been backed by French public investment via Bpifrance and German media group Axel Springer, though its shareholding has evolved over the years.

On 4 June 2026 the European Parliament replaced Google with Qwant as the default search engine on all 720 MEP and staff computers, covering Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox browsers. Users were notified by email and retained the option to revert. The Parliament cited digital sovereignty and personal data protection as the rationale. The move came one day after COREPER authorised the EU to join the Pax Silica semiconductor alliance, making it a symbolic counterpoint: the bloc accepted deep chip dependency on the US at the infrastructure layer while asserting sovereignty at the desktop.

Qwant occupies a structurally small share of the European search market against Google, which holds over 90% across most EU member states. The Parliament's switch is significant as institutional endorsement and as a procurement signal, but it does not alter Qwant's competitive position materially. The DMA's ongoing proceedings against Google (including an order to open search data) may reshape the environment Qwant competes in more consequentially than any single deployment.