BRUSSELS, June 3 (Reuters) - The European ⁠Parliament will switch to French search ‌engine Qwant from Google, it said on Wednesday, underscoring Europe's push to reduce its reliance on ​U.S. technology in favour of ⁠local alternatives.

The European ⁠Commission will later on Wednesday announce measures ⁠on ‌chips, cloud computing services and AI as part of its "Buy ⁠and Use European" drive.

"From 4 June ​2026, Qwant ‌will become the default search engine ⁠on the ​European Parliament's Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox browsers," a Parliament spokesperson said in ⁠an email.

The change will be ​applied automatically, though users will still be able to select alternative search engines.

"It is ⁠part of a larger framework of actions aimed at reducing EP reliance on non-EU digital tools and promoting European-based, ​privacy-focused services," the spokesperson ⁠said.

The Parliament has 720 lawmakers, along with ​thousands of assistants and ‌administrative staff. Euractiv first ​reported the switch.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee. Editing by Mark Potter)