GR: Commission requests information on Government-Microsoft deal

The request from the EC's Directorate-General Internal Market, sent on 20 October, was not made public. However, according to the Hellenic Linux User Group (Helug) and the Greek chapter of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), the EC suspects the contract with the proprietary software vendor shows "serious indications of a breach of community law". The organisations published a statement on the EC's letter on 24 November.

"I have not seen the letter from the Commission", says FFII spokesperson Antonis Christofides. "However, the Commission informed our lawyer that they have sent the letter because of these serious indications."

The EC started an investigation following a complaint by the FFII and Helug. Christofides: "We say that this deal violates the rules on awarding public contracts. The EC's letter shows our complaint is justified."

The Greek government and Microsoft signed a deal in February 2006. According to a press release by the Greek government, the agreement "provides secure privileged economic conditions for the purchase of software licenses by the Greek government, while ensuring the acquisition of all new versions of Microsoft software on the horizon for three years, without additional cost." As part of the deal, the proprietary software vendor would establish an software development centre to support academic research and Greek software companies.

The contract details were initially not made public, drawing protests by the FFII and Helug and raising questions in the Greek parliament. Christofides: "The most interesting part of the contract is in section 4.5, which shows the company will licence an unspecified number of licences of unspecified software at unspecified prices, to be fixed by later agreements."

The Greek parliament formally accepted the agreement in January this year. Christofides: "We again protested, but given the governing party's majority, the law passed."

Spokespersons for the DG Internal Market or the Greek government could not immediately respond.

More information:

FFII page on the contract (in Greek)

Main text of the agreement (page 193, in English, PDF)