A little known but amusing fact:

Fujitsu (well, ICL, the UK company that was bought by Fujitsu and then became the UK branch of Fujitsu) is still the supplier of Microsoft software to the European institutions through a long-standing framework contract with DIGIT.

Why EU could not buy from Microsoft directly to spare the embarrassment is beyond my comprehension.

> Why EU could not buy from Microsoft directly to spare the embarrassment is beyond my comprehension.

Possibly either some form of CYA, or a requirement to buy from an EU company.