Sources:

http://www.heide-ruehle.de/heide/fe/pub/de/dct/555

http://www.heide-ruehle.de/heide2007/media/doc/1207747685964.pdf

News story that reports on above:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/10/member-eu-parliament-asks

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My summary:

The EU has conditions as to whether a company can be selected for government procurement contracts. The second link above refers to an official question put forward by a Member of European Parliament, an EU administrative body, as to whether Microsoft meets these conditions. The relevant conditions are that:

"Pursuant to... [citations omitted], candidates or tenderers shall be excluded from participation in procurement procedures if: b) they have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgment which has the force of res judicata; c) they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authority can justify;"

The EU had found previously that Microsoft was guilty of violating competition law (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Microsoft_antitrust_case) and is currently investigating Microsoft on several other cases,including misuse of dominant position in relation to Internet Explorer, whether they unfgairly influencied the vote on approving OOXML as an ISO standard and whether they have engaged in anticompetitive contracts with PC OEMs. They have also fined Microsoft on two occasions in relation to these and other cases.

If these judgements count as violating the conditions necessary to be selected for government procurement contracts, then technically Microsoft should not be allowed to do so.

This would likely mean that Microsoft would be banned from, e.g. supplying software such as Windows to schools and libraries or operating government databases, in the EU area.

Microsoft won't be banned from the EU. They need Microsoft too much.

Every time the EU gets into financial difficulty, they b*tchslap Microsoft with another million dollar fine. If Microsoft stopped doing business there, not only would it hurt the economies of all countries with companies that depend on Microsoft products but the EU would lose a major source of revenue.

Hey, Microsoft has a simple way to not be fined - comply with the laws. I know it's fun to hate on the EU, but that doesn't mean the fines aren't deserved.

I agree that this ban will not happen though. The EU (and the world in general) needs Microsoft, but for reasons other than fines.

WTF are you talking about? You need to stop smoking what ever you smoked before you posted.

If the EU was in financial trouble there isn´t a fine in the world that would help them as the ammount they would need would be astronomical to get them out of trouble and a million dollar fine would hardly even be noticed in the EU´s economy.

Maybe you are confusing the financial trouble of US with EU and if so then you really need to stop smoking what ever you smoke.

 no they dont, Apple can support schools just as well. Plus EEE PCs that run Linux are cheap. 

Not a million and not a billion either. EU's GDP is $15 trillion, Microsoft's total EU fines were less than $2 billion.

By the way, hasn't Microsoft been fined around $1 billion by California?

1. The EU fines don't increase the EU budget as they are passed on to the member states.

2. Even if they did, they would be but a drop in the bucket. Have you any idea how big the EU is?

3. The whole world benefits from the EU taking on the Microsoft monopoly. The cost of this monopoly to world economy is unimaginably great.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

In many cases, Microsoft complying with the laws of the EU is like trying to play when the other team keeps shifting the goal posts. It's less a matter of "just follow the law" as it is "Simon says today's interpretation of the law is..."

You're right.  Financial difficulty was probably the wrong phrase to use. 

Still, do you do drugs?  You sure seem talk about them an awful lot.