2006 in the European Union

2006 the European Union European Union Template:Year in the EU: Parameter 1=year required! Flag of Europe.svg 90px Other events of 2006 Timeline of EU history Events from the year 2006 in the European Union. Incumbents EU President of the European Council Austria Wolfgang Schüssel (Jan – Jun 2006) Finland Matti Vanhanen (July – Dec 2006) EU Commission President POR José Manuel Barroso EU Council Presidency: AUT Austria (January – June) FIN Finland (July - December) EU Parliament President ESP Josep Borrell EU High Representative ESP Javier Solana Events 1 January: Austria takes the Presidency. 20 January: Aho report on innovation published.European Commission, 2006 – Aho Group Report "Creating an Innovative Europe", accessed on 23 November 2025 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.2006-02-02 Statement by Vice-President Franco Frattini on cartoons published by a Danish newspaper https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/home/en dead https://web.archive.org/web/20210312075905/https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/home/en 2021-03-12 2021-03-12 European Commission dmy-all 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.https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5225406.stm Polish leader backs death penalty 28 July 2006https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/aug/04/eu.poland Polish leader angers EU with call to restore death penalty 3 August 2006https://www.theage.com.au/world/anger-over-new-death-penalty-call-20060805-ge2uzx.html Anger over new death penalty call 5 August 2006 12 October: The Slovak 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).SMER suspended from PES political family https://web.archive.org/web/20110106205652/http://www.pes.org/en/news/smer-suspended-pes-political-family 6 January 2011, Party of European Socialists, 12 October 2006 This would happen again in 2023. 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. References External links Video: What has Europe done for you in 2006? 2006 in Category:Years of the 21st century in the European Union Category:2000s in the European Union