In 2006, the European Union was still suffering from a legitimacy crisis following the ill-fated referenda on the Constitutional Treaty in 2005. Nevertheless, this overview of different internal and external European initiatives in 2006 presents a more ambiguous picture. On the one hand, EU policy-makers failed to gather momentum for new and ambitious European initiatives; on the other hand the EU did make some progress in a number of new and running dossiers.
The extended reflection period did not result in a solution for the institutional impasse, despite some limited proposals (‘Plan D’, a mini-Constitution) to turn the tide. In spite of clear signs of enlargement fatigue, two new member states (Romania and Bulgaria) acceded to the EU. The enlargement negotiations with Croatia and Turkey continued – even though the talks with Turkey were somewhat scaled down. In 2006 the energy issue reached the top of the European political agenda, with ambitious proposals from the European Commission, but this did not result in specific EU policy decisions. The EU did finally reach a compromise on other dossiers that had been stuck in the EU decision-making machinery for years, such as the Bolkestein directive on the liberalisation of services and the REACH regulation on chemicals. The EU’s external and foreign policies were characterised by the EU’s involvement in a number of crisis situations (Lebanon, Congo) and the elaboration of the European Neighbourhood Policy (Action Plans). EU initiatives in the areas of migration and energy also link up with Europe’s external policies – especially in relation to the EU’s neighbouring regions.

The 2006 local elections in Belgium were the first one organised after the transfer of the local authorities competences from the federal to the regional level. This means by consequence that the different regions have as well the competence in designing the institutional framework of local government as the competence of changing electoral rules. The same elections were also the first ones after drastic reforms in the national political landscape (eg., the democratic Flemish nationalist party split in different groups, nearly all the parties changed their name and particularly in the Flemish part of the country, different kinds of alliances between parties emerged).
All over the country, the Christian democrats made progress and the ecologists suffered a declining trend. For the other parties, results depend from one region to another.
In the Flemish part of the country, the socialists and the extreme right wing joined the Christian democrats as winners of the elections. The other parties lost votes. This was particularly the case for the liberals and ecologists (the winners of the 2000 local elections). Liberals are however the winners in the Walloon part of the country, together with again the Christian democrats. In this region, socialists and ecologists were set back. In the Brussels region, we noticed progress for socialists and Christian democrats and declining figures for liberals and ecologists.
Analyses of political competition, number of groups in local councils and single party majorities point out that the fragmentation of local politics is not growing. The local political landscape seems to be more stable in the Walloons compared with the Flemish region.

The 2006 provincial elections in Belgium were the first organised after the transfer of the bulk of competences on local and provincial government from the federal to the regional level. This means that the different regions have both the competence to redesign the institutional framework on provincial government and to change the electoral rules. The government has exercised its competence: some institutional and electoral rules are now different in the two regions. These elections were also the first after drastic reforms in the national political landscape (e.g., the democratic Flemish nationalist party split in different groups, nearly all the parties changed their name and different kinds of cartels and alliances between parties emerged, especially in the Flemish part of the country).
All over the country, the Christian democrats and the extreme right parties were the winners of the elections, while the ecologists suffered from a declining trend. For the other parties, results differ according to region. In the Flemish part of the country, the socialists joined the Christian democrats as winners, where in the Walloon provinces they lost votes. The Liberals however noticed declining vote shares in the Flemish provinces, while winning in the Walloon part of the country.
Because of the electoral design the evolution of the provincial political landscape offers an interesting electoral barometer of the upcoming federal elections. Provincial elections do not only ‘predict’ the political future of other levels however, they are path dependent in their own right as well. Historical, institutional, political and electoral forces all codetermine the actual outlook of current provincial events. The analysis for 2006 has once again confirmed this.