2006 in the European Union

Events from the year 2006 in the European Union.

• President of the European Council
  • Wolfgang Schüssel (Jan – Jun 2006)
  • Matti Vanhanen (July – Dec 2006)
• Commission President
  • José Manuel Barroso
• Council Presidency:
  • Austria (January – June)
  • Finland (July - December)
• Parliament President
  • Josep Borrell
• High Representative
  • Javier Solana

• 1 January: Austria takes the Presidency.
• 2 February:
  • The Commission launches a white paper on communication policy.
  • European Commission Vice-President Franco Frattini backs the freedom of speech of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.^[1]
• 16 February: The Commission's 'Bolkestein Directive' is approved at its first reading by the MEPs admit large protests outside the Parliament.
• 7 April: .eu domain opens to the public.
• 4 May: The Commission adopts a green paper on the European Transparency Initiative.
• 3 June: Montenegro declares independence, leads to separate relations and accession negotiations.
• 21 June: Barroso attends EU-US summit in Vienna.
• 1 July: Finland takes the Presidency.
• 12 July: Kroes gives Microsoft a 280.5 million euro fine for its anti-competitive behaviour.
• 24 July: The Council adopts a common position on the Bolkestein Directive
• 28 July: Polish President Lech Kaczyński calls for EU member states to reintroduce the death penalty. This angers the EU.^[2][3][4]
• 15 November: European Parliament adopts the Bolkestein Directive at its second reading.
• 12 December: Parliament approves the Bulgarian and Romanian Commissioners despite concerns over the weakness of the Multilingualism portfolio.

• Video: What has Europe done for you in 2006?