Governments are asked by Microsoft to offer choice between multiple standards. In other words it means that a decision on the use of standards will be made on a hierarchical level where the public procurement agency can exercise less power.
On the other hand it is notable that the choice propaganda is just unilateral. Microsoft does not offer customers of their products to choose between ODF and OOXML. Yes, I know there is a plugin, but it does not count as it's no native support.
“We don’t think ODF is good enough for our users,”
is Tom Robertson (Microsoft) quoted.
“Uniformity is not always a good thing,” said Tsilas. “At the end of the day, we should have a more dynamic market, and live in a world of ‘and,’ not ‘either/or.’”
So why doesn't the vendor offer its customers the choice in its own Office products? The fact is that governments who deliberately choose ODF will force Microsoft to offer more choice.