Microsoft’s plans to get Office 2007 into British classrooms suffered a fresh blow yesterday when Becta confirmed that it has referred an interoperability complaint to the European Commission.

A Microsoft spokesman told The Register today:

“Microsoft is deeply committed to education and interoperability. We believe that more and more schools are upgrading to Windows Vista and Office 2007 as they increasingly recognise the benefits of embracing technology to transform teaching and learning.

“We have funded the development of tools to promote interoperability between Office 2007 and products based on the ODF [Open Document Format] file format. We will continue to work with Becta and the Commission in a cooperative manner to resolve these issues.”

A European Commision spokeswoman told The Register today that although Becta’s allegations would not be considered as a formal complaint, the evidence it submitted will form part of an indirect probe into Microsoft’s business practices.