Against that backdrop, a new initiative has bubbled up to decrease Europe’s dependence on American and Chinese technology. The project is a joint effort by Qwant, an ecosystem-friendly, privacy by design, French search engine and Ecosia, a German-based, non-profit search engine. The European Search Perspective (EUSP) is excited to see the launch of Staan Reclaim Your Search Output of the new Search Engine from generative AI on contextualSearch.
By the end of 2025, Staan expects to be processing about half of all search queries in France. In Germany, they’re targeting 33% of the market. EUSP sets the bar high with this audacious target. They are committed to developing for a European tech stack that puts privacy first and limits dependence on foreign infrastructure. As the index is being developed in collaboration with Kroll, it will be designed to operate in strict compliance with European privacy laws, including the GDPR.
By pooling their resources, Qwant and Ecosia have joined forces to build Europe’s most innovative and advanced search index. Qwant intends to use Staan to improve other features, like offering AI-generated summaries for search results. Ecosia isn’t stopping there though and it has plans to introduce new AI use-cases into its platform, making the user experience even more dynamic.
The EUSP initiative is arriving at a pivotal moment. In addition, the dependency of European digital infrastructure on American tech companies is concerning. Consequently, stakeholders are realizing just how dangerous this dependence is becoming.
“The timing could not be more urgent. The outcome of the 2024 U.S. election has reminded European policymakers and innovators just how exposed Europe remains when it comes to core digital infrastructure. Much of Europe’s search, cloud, and AI layers are built on American Big Tech stacks, putting entire sectors – from journalism to climate tech – at the mercy of political or commercial agendas,” – EUSP.
Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia, underlined the importance of Staan’s work on AI applications. He stated,
“If you’re using ChatGPT or any other AI chatbot, they all do knowledge grounding with web search […] our index can power deep research and AI summary features. Google and Bing’s solutions are also pricey, and our index can offer power search features at a tenth of the cost.”
EUSP will convene in San Francisco from October 27–29, 2025. This event represents a great leap forward in building a more independent and European technology ecosystem.
