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The current battle is over allowing access to Microsoft code. In its ruling a year ago the EU imposed a record 497.2 million euros (£333 million) fine. It also ordered that Microsoft should change some of its business practices to allow a more level playing field for its competitors. This included Microsoft publishing some of its source code to allow rivals a better opportunity for server developers to maintain full interoperability between the dominant Windows desktop operating system and their own software.

That was the theory. However, according to the EU, it hasn't worked like that. It's not just that the mechanism

What the Commission didn't bank on was that Microsoft would decide to charge for access to its source code which ranges from between $100 to $600 per server. In its defence Microsoft says that the ruling said nothing about giving the code away for free.

Todd warned Microsoft that the EU says that it felt that this was too expensive. It has been suggested that the EU might impose punitive fines of up to five per cent of Microsoft's daily sales if it did not comply.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is attempting to woo over some of the member states of the EU by expanding of its Shared Source Initiative (SSI) into seven new countries. This programme is aimed at governments and large corporations to enable them to create bespoke software for their own major software projects and ensure that the resultant code meets national security standards.

Among the countries which have been included into the SSI are Slovenia, Slovakia, Malta, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus and Estonia. The seven EU countries will gain access to the code in Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows CE and Windows Server 2003.