The Greek government denies the European Commission has asked for information concerning a 2006 licence contract with Microsoft.
According to Yannis Larios, advisor to the Special Secretary for Digital Planning at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, no official correspondence was received by the permanent representation of Greece in Brussels, the Secretariat for Digital Planning or any other agency related to the agreement. "For the time being, we are unable to provide information on a hypothetical 'letter of enquiry' which we cannot trace back to a reliable or official source other than some press releases", Larios commented on 15 January.
In a statement issued in late November, the Greek open source advocacy groups Hellenic Linux User Group (Hellug) and the Greek chapter of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) said the European Commission had sent a letter to the Greek government the month before, alleging that the 2006 licence deal with Microsoft shows "serious indications of violation of community law that concerns public procurement".
FFII spokesperson Antonis Christofides last week affirmed the group's statement: "If the Commission has sent the letter and the Greek government did not receive it, the only explanation is that it has been lost in the mail."
The FFII and Hellug have asked the European Commission to investigate the 2006 deal with the proprietary software vendor. The advocacy groups say that the deal violates the rules on awarding public contracts.
The agreement between the Greek government and the proprietary software vendor is to provide privileged economic conditions for the purchase of software licenses by the Greek government. In exchange, the company would establish an software development centre to support academic research and Greek software companies.
The agreement was formally accepted by the Greek parliament in January last year. However, according to members of the European Parliament Stavros Lambrinidis (PSE) and Katerina Batzeli (PSE) the Greek government at the time has falsely told the Greek parliament that the Commission had approved the agreement. The two MEPs on 12 December asked the Commission to confirm if it had sent a letter to the Greek government and to tell if it had found evidence of a breach of Community law. The Commission has not yet answered these questions.
Larios, this January: "The Greek authorities have said they will abide by Community law on public procurement. All issues have been extensively discussed and clarified during the ratification process of the agreement by the Greek Parliament."
Spokespersons for the DG Internal Market did not immediately respond to questions.
More information:
Questions by MEPs Stavros Lambrinidis (PSE) and Katerina Batzeli (PSE)