The European Commission has said that Microsoft need not, in principle,
be excluded from public procurement procedures, even after being
condemned by the European Court of Justice for anti-competitive
behaviour. In her question,
Heide Ruhle, internal market policy spokeswoman for the Greens in the
European Parliament, had put the emphasis on two provisions of an EU
Directive that provide for the exclusion of applicants from public
procurement procedures if their professional reliability is put in
question, following a legally effective verdict, or if they have been
guilty of grave professional misconduct.
The EC substantiated its decision by saying that the directive provides for the possibility of exclusion, but does not make it obligatory. Moreover, it went on, neither the imposition of a fine by the Commission nor its confirmation by the European Court of Justice is to be regarded as a "criminal conviction of a criminal offence by a final
judgement from a Court" as required by the first provision and, since
the second provision does not clearly define what counts as grave
professional misconduct, the interpretation of it would require
case-by-case assessment in the framework of an ongoing procurement
procedure.
Greens in the European Parliament are calling
on the European Commission to ban Microsoft from bidding on future EU
procurement contracts.Their call comes after the firm was fined for its anti-competitive behaviour in 2004, and its failure to comply with the judgement since then.
Although
the European Commission has so far not offered a straight yes or no
response to the Greens' proposal, the Greens are pointing to the fact
it has not ruled out a ban on Microsoft when it comes to future
procurement.
Caroline Lucas, south east England Green MEP, said,
"It is disappointing that the commission has refused to give clear
guidance on the role that Microsoft can or cannot play in future
procurement processes."
Source: http://www.computerweekly.com, http://www.heise.de/