Digital sovereignty in the EU: Parliament replaces Google with Qwant

The European Union has once again placed digital sovereignty at the centre of its political and economic agenda. The new European plan aims to reduce dependence on American and Asian technology in critical areas such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, data centres and software. At the same time, the European Parliament has taken a symbolic step: replacing Google with the French search engine Qwant in the browsers used internally.

This decision is more than a change of tool. It is a political signal. Brussels wants Europe to stop being merely a consumer of critical technologies developed elsewhere and to gain greater decision-making power, control and production capacity over the digital infrastructures that support companies, public administrations and essential services.

Why has digital sovereignty become a priority?

The European Union’s technological dependence is significant. Companies outside the EU provide more than 80% of the digital products, services, infrastructures and intellectual property used in the bloc. This includes cloud solutions, artificial intelligence, business software, chips and critical digital services.

The issue is no longer purely economic. It has become strategic. Hospitals, energy networks, defence, public administration, financial services and businesses depend on digital systems that are not always under European control. Ursula von der Leyen summarised the concern by saying: «We cannot afford to depend on others for the technologies that keep our hospitals running, our energy grids stable and our services secure».

Recent crises involving chips, rare earths and supply chains have reinforced this perception. Concerns about a possible kill switch affecting US cloud services have also raised a sensitive question: to what extent can Europe depend on digital infrastructures controlled outside its territory?

What does the new European plan include?

The technological sovereignty package includes several areas of action. Key measures include a new law on cloud computing and artificial intelligence, stronger European semiconductor production and greater use of open source software in the public sector.

The goal is to increase European capacity, especially in sensitive areas. For sectors such as defence and security, the European Commission argues that it is particularly important for services to be supplied by European entities. Cloud computing will be one of the priorities, with the EU aiming to triple its data centre capacity over the next five to seven years, while ensuring a more sustainable integration into Europe’s energy system.

Qwant in the European Parliament: symbolic gesture or real change?

The choice of Qwant as the default search engine in Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox within the European Parliament has strong symbolic value. It shows that digital sovereignty also depends on everyday decisions, such as the tools used by public institutions.

This change will not, by itself, transform the global search market. Google will remain dominant. However, it opens the door to a broader reflection: if Europe wants stronger technology companies, it must also create demand, trust and real adoption opportunities in institutional and business contexts.

The impact on companies and digital brands

For companies, ecommerce businesses and brands with a digital presence, this discussion should not be seen as distant. Digital sovereignty may influence public procurement, supplier selection, data location, AI integrations, platform choices, privacy policies and technology architecture.

Businesses that depend exclusively on external providers should start mapping risks. Where is data hosted? Which tools process customer information? Are there viable European alternatives? What would be the impact of a regulatory, commercial or geopolitical change on operations?

At our agency, we have already been taking several initiatives aligned with new European strategies, from the adoption of Euro-Office currently underway to the use of European cloud infrastructures, moving away from Amazon and Google Cloud, European software licensing and greater use of Linux desktop distributions compiled in Europe.

We have also encouraged our clients to consider similar measures, from adopting Proton Mail, developed in Switzerland, to reinforcing the need for European cloud hosting and high-standard personal data consent strategies.

An opportunity to rethink digital strategy

The new European direction shows that the digital future will not be built only through fast innovation. As Qwant’s market share remains extremely small, around 0.06%, it will also need to be built through long-term resilience, control, transparency and decision-making capacity.

Digital sovereignty does not mean closing Europe to the world. It means creating conditions so that companies, institutions and citizens are not vulnerable to decisions made outside their economic and legal space.

If this adoption is taken seriously by the private sector, it may have medium-term consequences for organic traffic. Brands should not ignore this impact. It will become necessary to review ranking consolidation strategies on Qwant and understand how European brands can secure visibility in this search engine.

BYDAS is already following this evolution actively. Together with Master’s students in Marketing at Católica Porto Business School, a pilot project led by Luis Cordeiro, lecturer of the Search Marketing course, tested Qwant’s indexing capabilities through practical actions.

The findings enriched the students’ learning experience and provided relevant signals for the lecturer, who is also general manager of BYDAS. This knowledge helps the agency make more informed, reasonable and efficient decisions regarding SEO and organic traffic strategies for clients over the next five years.

At BYDAS, we help companies make stronger digital decisions, from strategy and digital marketing to development and ecommerce. If you want an experienced and trusted partner, contact us so we can build a lasting partnership and help you face the challenges of the rest of this decade and the next.