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2006 in the European Union
Events from the year
2006 in the
European Union
.
Incumbents
President of the European Council
Wolfgang Schüssel
(Jan â Jun 2006)
Matti Vanhanen
(July â Dec 2006)
Commission President
José Manuel Barroso
Council Presidency
:
Austria
(January â June)
Finland
(July - December)
Parliament President
Josep Borrell
High Representative
Javier Solana
Events
1 January:
Austria
takes the Presidency.
20 January:
Aho report
on innovation published.
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
.
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 Kaczyà Âski
calls for EU member states to reintroduce the
death penalty
. This angers the EU.
12 October: The Slovakian
Smer-SD
was temporarily suspended from membership in
The Party of European Socialists
(PES) for their plans to enter into coalition with the
ultranationalist
Slovak National Party
(SNS). This would happen again in 2023.
15 November: European Parliament adopts the Bolkestein Directive at its second reading.
12 December: Parliament approves the
Bulgaria
n and
Romania
n Commissioners despite concerns over the weakness of the Multilingualism portfolio.
References
External links
Video: What has Europe done for you in 2006?