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The agencies of the European Union (formally: Agencies, decentralised independent bodies, corporate bodies and joint undertakings of the European Union and the Euratom) are bodies of the European Union and the Euratom established as juridical persons through secondary EU legislation and tasked with a specific narrow field of work.^[1]

They are distinct from:

• international law juridical persons established through primary (treaty) legislation, either as an EU institution (the European Central Bank) or an EU body of other 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 whether established through treaty or secondary legislation
• the pan-EU organisational forms which are not considered constituent bodies of the EU or the Euratom, regardless 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 the Euratom.^[1]

Some of the agencies, decentralised independent bodies and joint undertakings of the European Union and the 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.

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 Vocational 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)[lower-alpha 1]	Netherlands ( UK till 2019)[lower-alpha 1]	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]
Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications	BEREC	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]

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;[28] European Commission participant: Norway
European Institute for Security Studies	EUISS	Paris	France	2001
European Union Satellite Centre	SatCen	Torrejón de Ardoz	Spain	2002

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[29]
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[30][31]	eu-LISA[32]	Tallinn[33]	Estonia	2012
European Border and Coast Guard Agency	Frontex	Warsaw	Poland	2016[34]	members: EU states, except Ireland, Schengen Area states not members of the EU
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction	EMCDDA	Lisbon	Portugal	1993	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament, Norway observers: Turkey[35]
European Union Agency for Cybersecurity	ENISA	Athens	Greece	2005	members: EU states[36]
European Union Agency for Asylum	EUAA	Valletta	Malta	2011[31]
European Institute for Gender Equality	EIGE	Vilnius	Lithuania	2007	members: EU states[37]
Fundamental Rights Agency	FRA	Vienna	Austria	2007	members: EU states, European Commission, Council of Europe[38]

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)[lower-alpha 1]	France ( UK till 2019)[lower-alpha 1]	2011	[39]
European Securities and Markets Authority	ESMA	Paris	France	2011	[40]
European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority	EIOPA	Frankfurt	Germany	2011	[41]

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

Decentralised independent secondary-legislation bodies

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

Official name	Abbreviation	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[43][44]	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 secondary-law corporate bodies

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.

Joint undertakings

A joint undertaking is a juridical person and a subsidiary body of the EU or the 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.

Non-existing decentralised bodies

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, & jargon
• Meroni doctrine

References

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Agencies of the European Union.

• 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