Agencies of the European Union

The European Union and Euratom have agencies, decentralised independent bodies, corporate bodies and joint undertakings which are established as juridical persons through secondary EU legislation and tasked with a specific narrow field of work. ^[1] They are a part of the wider set of bodies of the European Union and Euratom and are therefore distinct from:

• international law juridical persons established through primary (treaty) legislation, either as an EU institution (the European Central Bank) or as an EU body of another type (such as the European Investment Bank Group entities, the European University Institute, the European Stability Mechanism or the Unified Patent Court)
• other EU institutions
• other EU bodies lacking juridical personality, including the advisory bodies, the independent offices held by a single person (European Ombudsman, European Data Protection Supervisor), and the (non-independent, auxiliary) EU inter-institutional services, regardless of whether established through treaty or through secondary legislation
• the pan-EU organisational forms which are not considered constituent bodies of the EU or Euratom, regardless of whether possessing juridical personality (European Research Infrastructure Consortium, European political party, European political foundation, European grouping of territorial cooperation, Societas Europaea , Societas Cooperativa Europaea ) or lacking it (European economic interest grouping)

Overview

In contrast to other EU bodies established through secondary legislation, each of more than fifty such entities has its own juridical personality granted by the EU law, recognised across the EU, and in some cases, also across the EEA countries, Switzerland, Serbia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Turkey. Nevertheless, in relations with other non-EU third countries, they are in general not recognised as independent entities, thus being considered either parts of the juridical personality of the EU or Euratom. ^[1]

Some of the agencies, decentralised independent bodies and joint undertakings of the European Union and Euratom are tasked with answering the need to develop scientific or technical know-how in certain fields, others bring together different interest groups to facilitate dialogue at European and international level.^{[ citation needed ]}

Existing agencies

They are divided into the following groups: ^[1]

Decentralised agencies of the EU

Distinct from the EU institutions, the agencies of the European Union are specialist bodies set up to advise the Institutions and Member States in areas that affect everyone living in the Union. ^[2] They are located in member states across the EU, providing services, information, and know-how. The total budget of all the decentralised agencies is approximately 0.8% of the EU's annual budget. ^[3]

Single market agencies

Single market agencies (under the former I Pillar)

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Est.	Members and observers
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work	EU-OSHA	Bilbao	Spain	1994	members: EU states, European Commission [4]
European Centre for the Development of Professional Training	Cedefop	Thessaloniki	Greece	1975	members: EU states observers: Iceland, Norway [5]
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions	EUROFOUND	Dublin	Ireland	1975	members: EU states, European Commission observers: EFTA [6]
European Environment Agency	EEA	Copenhagen	Denmark	1994	members: EU states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey [7] co-operating: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia
European Training Foundation	ETF	Turin	Italy	1994	members: EU states, European Commission [8]
European Medicines Agency	EMA	Amsterdam (since 2019) London (1995–2019) [a]	Netherlands ( UK until 2019) [a]	1995	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway [10]
European Union Intellectual Property Office [11]	EUIPO [12]	Alicante	Spain	1994	members: EU states, European Commission [13]
Community Plant Variety Office	CPVO	Angers	France	1994	members: EU states, European Commission [14]
Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union	CdT	Luxembourg City	Luxembourg	1994	members: EU states, European Commission [15]
European Food Safety Authority	EFSA	Parma	Italy	2002	members: EU states observers European Commission, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland
European Maritime Safety Agency	EMSA	Lisbon	Portugal	2002	members: EU states, European Commission, Iceland, Norway [16]
European Aviation Safety Agency	EASA	Cologne	Germany	2003	members: EU states, European Commission, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland [17] observers: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, UNMIK [18]
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control	ECDC	Stockholm	Sweden	2005	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway [19]
European Union Agency for the Space Programme	EUSPA	Prague	Czech Republic	2021 [20]	members: EU states, European Commission observers: Norway, European Space Agency [21]
European Railway Agency	ERA	Valenciennes and Lille	France	2004	members: EU states, European Commission, Norway [22]
European Fisheries Control Agency	EFCA	Vigo	Spain	2005	members: EU states, European Commission [23]
European Chemicals Agency	ECHA	Helsinki	Finland	2007	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Norway [24]
Agency for Support for BEREC	BEREC Office	Riga	Latvia	2010	members: EU states, European Commission [25]
Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators	ACER	Ljubljana	Slovenia	2009
European Labour Authority	ELA	Bratislava	Slovakia	2019	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament [26] [27]

Area of freedom, security and justice agencies

Area of freedom, security and justice agencies (under the former III Pillar)

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Est.	Members and observers
European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training	CEPOL	Budapest (since 2014) Bramshill (2005–2014)	Hungary ( UK till 2014)	2005	members: EU states without Denmark associates: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland [28]
European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation	Europol	The Hague	Netherlands	1998	members: EU states
European body for the enhancement of judicial co-operation	Eurojust	The Hague	Netherlands	2002	members: EU states
European Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT Systems in the area of freedom, security and justice [29] [30]	eu-LISA [31]	Tallinn [32]	Estonia	2012
European Border and Coast Guard Agency	Frontex	Warsaw	Poland	2016 [33]	members: EU states, except Ireland, Schengen Area states not members of the EU
European Union Drugs Agency	EUDA	Lisbon	Portugal	1993	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament, Norway observers: Turkey [34]
European Union Agency for Cybersecurity	ENISA	Athens	Greece	2005	members: EU states [35]
European Union Agency for Asylum	EUAA	Valletta	Malta	2011 [30]
European Institute for Gender Equality	EIGE	Vilnius	Lithuania	2007	members: EU states [36]
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights	FRA	Vienna	Austria	2007	members: EU states, European Commission, Council of Europe [37]
Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism	AMLA	Frankfurt	Germany	2024	members: EU states

European supervisory authorities

European supervisory authorities (of the European System of Financial Supervision)

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Est.	Members and observers
European Banking Authority	EBA	Paris (since 2019) London (2011–2019) [a]	France ( UK till 2019) [a]	2011	[38]
European Securities and Markets Authority	ESMA	Paris	France	2011	[39]
European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority	EIOPA	Frankfurt	Germany	2011	[40]

Banking union (Single Resolution Mechanism) bodies

Single Resolution Mechanism bodies (of the European banking union)

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Est.	Members and observers
Single Resolution Board	SRB	Brussels	Belgium	2015	Eurozone countries, Bulgaria

Common Security and Defence Policy agencies

Common Security and Defence Policy agencies (under the former II Pillar)

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Est.	Members and observers
European Defence Agency	EDA	Brussels	Belgium	2004	Members: EU states; [41] European Commission Participant: Norway
European Institute for Security Studies	EUISS	Paris	France	2001
European Union Satellite Centre	SatCen	Torrejón de Ardoz	Spain	2002

Executive agencies of the EU

Executive agencies are created by the European Commission for a fixed period.

Official name	Abbreviation	Location
European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency	EISMEA	Brussels
Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency	EACEA	Brussels
European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency	CINEA	Brussels
European Research Executive Agency	REA	Brussels
European Research Council Executive Agency	ERCEA	Brussels
European Health and Digital Executive Agency	HaDEA	Brussels

Euratom agencies

Official name	Abbreviation	Location
Euratom Supply Agency	ESA	Luxembourg City

Joint undertakings

A joint undertaking is a juridical person and a subsidiary body of the EU or Euratom, established through an agreement between the European Commission, the participating member states, and the European industry of a certain field, with the purpose of implementing a public-private partnership project.

of the European Union

Official name	Abbreviation
Bio-based Industries	BBI
Clean Sky	CS
Electronic Components and Systems	ECSEL
Fuel Cells and Hydrogen	FCH
High-Performance Computing	EuroHPC
Innovative Medicines Initiative	IMI
Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research	SESAR
Shift-2-Rail	S2R

of Euratom

Official name	Abbreviation
Fusion for Energy	F4E
Joint European Torus	JET

Independent secondary-legislation bodies

Decentralised

The list includes the two decentralised bodies other than agencies, established as EU juridical persons through secondary legislation of the EU/Euratom.

Official name	Abbrev.	Location	Member state	Members and associates
European Institute of Innovation and Technology	EIT	Budapest	Hungary	Members: EEA countries, Switzerland; associates: the United Kingdom
European Public Prosecutor's Office	EPPO	Luxembourg City [42] [43]	Luxembourg	Members: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain

Other

The list includes the remaining two bodies other than agencies, decentralised bodies or joint undertakings, established as EU juridical persons through secondary legislation of the EU/Euratom.

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Est.
European Data Protection Board	EDPB	Brussels	Belgium	2018
Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations	APPF	Brussels [44]	Belgium	2014

Non-existing decentralised bodies

Proposed and abandoned

Name	Abbreviation	Fate
Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority [45]	HERA	Eventually established as DG HERA instead.

Transformed or dissolved

Agencies

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Established	Abolished	Fate
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia	EUMC	Vienna	Austria	1997	2007	Transformed into FRA
European Agency for Reconstruction	EAR	Thessaloniki	Greece	2000	2008	Dissolved; tasks assigned to DG NEAR and IPA
Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency	Chafea	Luxembourg City	Luxembourg	2005	2015	Dissolved; tasks assigned to DG SANTE and to HaDEA
European GNSS Supervisory Authority	GSA	undef.	undef.	2004	2010	Transformed into the second GSA
European GNSS Agency	GSA	Prague	Czech Republic	2010	2021	Transformed into EUSPA
European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union	Frontex	Warsaw	Poland	2005	2016	Transformed into current Frontex

Euratom joint undertakings

• Schnell-Brüter- Kernkraftwerksgesellschaft mbH' (SBK)
• Hochtemperatur- Kernkraftwerk GmbH (HKG)

See also

• Directorate-General
• European integration – participation by non-EU states in EU initiatives
• Glossary of European Union concepts, acronyms, and jargon
• Meroni doctrine

References

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2. European Commission (27 April 2018). "Decentralised agencies". Europa (web portal). Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
3. Deloitte (November 2016), How do EU agencies and other bodies contribute to the Europe 2020 Strategy and to the Juncker Commission Agenda? (Report), European Union (published 11 May 2017), archived from the original on 8 July 2022, retrieved 21 August 2018
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11. Former Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market
12. Former OHIM
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Notes

1. With the United Kingdom departure from the EU, the EU decided to relocate the agencies based in London to Amsterdam and Paris on 20 November 2017. ^[9]

External links

• EU's main site about agencies
  • Decentralised agencies
• Attribution of the seat of EU agencies: European Council conclusions, December 2003
• EU agencies on social media
  • Official social media accounts of EU agencies on Twitter and elsewhere
  • Unofficial mirrors of social media accounts of EU agencies on Mastodon