(translation of a Greek press release by FFII and digitalrights.gr)

Athens, 3 August 2007. The FFII and digitalrights.gr today published an analysis of the agreement between Microsoft and the Greek government that was signed in February 2006. The analysis explains that the agreement is given preferential treatment in comparison to its competitors concerning education, public administration, including local administration, and the private sector.

Nikos Kossifidis, analyst from the digitalrights.gr citizen movement, comments: "The first aim of the agreement is the 'the use of Microsoft technologies in all Public Administration'. The use of technologies of a specific company, which avoids the use of open standards in its applications, is an obstacle to anyone else who would like to offer services to the state, because when the standards are not open the interoperability between applications of different vendors is difficult."

Antonis Christofides, vice president of FFII, adds: "The Minister said that the agreement is not binding, and that it will be brought to the Parliament when the European Union approves. This creates more questions than it answers: Where is it written that the agreement is not binding? Have the additional agreements that are referred to by the main agreement been signed, and which is their full text? To which EU agency has the agreement been submitted, with which procedure, who are the people responsible for the examination, and what is the number of the case? Has the implementation of the agreement halted while we wait for the approval?
"We are in contact with many Greek organisations and companies, and we are still studying the agreement and its consequences for the Greek market. Given the unwillingness of the government to co-operate so that our questions can be answered, we are considering all alternatives."