The European Commission has asked four European Union countries to justify why they favor Intel Corp. processors in computers for public authorities, it announced Wednesday. The Commission has asked France, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden for information on why invitations for tenders to supply computers for public authorities specified they should contain Intel or equivalent microprocessors, or processors using a specific clock rate. A brand name can only be specified in invitations for tender if it is otherwise impossible to describe the product sufficiently, and merely specifying the clock rate is not sufficient to indicate the required performance of a computer, the Commission said