2.2 Licensing of Microsoft Software. The parties agree that immediately after signing this Agreement, MIOL and the Government will proceed with the licensing of Microsoft software products by the Public Administration as set forth in Section 4.5.
Of course the Government could consider to use other suppliers, e.g. those that support ISO 26300:2006 properly but:
WHEREAS, the Government has, and will maintain, full discretion to procure software products and/or services from vendors other than MIOL; and …
MIOL is Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, the nation which kindly provides extraordinary tax benefits for patents and immaterial assets ("taxploitation"). The provision means that the government may not disclose the use of software from other vendors than Microsoft which is clearly an anti-competitive practice.
WHEREAS, the Government is committed to the enforcement of intellectual property rights in compliance with the EU standards and WTO guidelines, as well as to the full and effective enforcement of laws of Greece;
Indeed, for a contract with a company that tends to infiltrate the political process of foreign nations public policy is part of the deal.
3.1.1.5 University Engagement. Microsoft will provide material for university libraries, electronic curricula, training for university lab administrators and research grants for top doctoral students. The terms and conditions of Microsoft’s university engagement will be determined in a separate agreement.
Who needs freedom of science and teaching when a company provides and defines curricula?
4.1 Intellectual property rights awareness. Microsoft shall reasonably assist the Government in any public awareness efforts it might undertake to inform citizens and businesses of the laws on intellectual property rights and the impact of infringement of intellectual property rights.
Weird, right? Microsoft shall assist the government to indoctrinate the people of Greece that are supposed to define policies themselves and raise their voice (principle of normative individualism).
4.2 Implementation of a Software Asset Management (“SAM”) Process. Microsoft will assist the Government in designing an effective software asset management process in order to facilitate the better management of the software used by the Government, enabling the streamlining of its systems with a view to achieve substantial savings. The process will optimize license tracking in order to ensure that the most efficient and necessary software is…
Nice proposal, Microsoft will help Greece to spy on its ICT infrastructure in order to weaken the procurement power of Greece for the benefit of the supplier. Win-Win, right?
4.3 Use of Past Experience. The Government will co-operate on each of these initiatives under Section 4.1 and 4.2 with Microsoft. Microsoft shall assist the Government in each of these initiatives by providing the benefit of its experience in assisting in similar intellectual property awareness campaigns in other countries.
Yes, read it for yourself:
http://sandbox.cs.uchicago.edu/blog_el/files/SPA.en.pdf
Parliament of Greece: the Greek government attempts to validate their agreement with Microsoft in the Parliament. They claim that similar agreements have been made in several other countries, and they provide a list of 11 countries.
http://www.parliament.gr/
You can contact your Greek member of the European Parliament here or ask your MEPs if they are aware of similar contractual arrangements:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch/search.do
You can ask your government to disclose a similar contract if available.