Agencies of the European Union

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An agency of the European Union is a decentralised body of the European Union (EU), which is distinct from the institutions. Agencies are established to accomplish specific tasks. Each agency has its own legal personality. Some answer 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.

There are more than forty agencies, divided into four groups:^[1]

Current agencies[]

Decentralised agencies[]

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]

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 Institute of Innovation and Technology	EIT	Budapest	Hungary	2010	members: EU states
European Training Foundation	ETF	Turin	Italy	1994	members: EU states, European Commission[8]
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction	EMCDDA	Lisbon	Portugal	1993	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament, Norway observers: Turkey[9]
European Medicines Agency	EMA	Amsterdam (since 2019) London (1995–2019)[a]	Netherlands (UK till 2019)[a]	1995	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway[11]
European Union Intellectual Property Office[12]	EUIPO[13]	Alicante	Spain	1994	members: EU states, European Commission[14]
Community Plant Variety Office	CPVO	Angers	France	1994	members: EU states, European Commission[15]
Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union	CdT	Luxembourg City	Luxembourg	1994	members: EU states, European Commission[16]
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[17]
European Aviation Safety Agency	EASA	Cologne	Germany	2003	members: EU states, European Commission, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland[18] observers: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, UNMIK[19]
European Union Agency for Cybersecurity	ENISA	Athens	Greece	2005	members: EU states[20]
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control	ECDC	Stockholm	Sweden	2005	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway[21]
European Union Agency for the Space Programme	EUSPA	Prague	Czechia	2021[22]	members: EU states, European Commission observers: Norway, European Space Agency[23]
European Railway Agency	ERA	Valenciennes and Lille	France	2004	members: EU states, European Commission, Norway[24]
European Fisheries Control Agency	EFCA	Vigo	Spain	2005	members: EU states, European Commission[25]
European Chemicals Agency	ECHA	Helsinki	Finland	2007	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Norway[26]
European Institute for Gender Equality	EIGE	Vilnius	Lithuania	2007	members: EU states[27]
European Defence Agency	EDA	Brussels	Belgium	2004	members: EU states without Denmark; European Commission participant: Norway
European Institute for Security Studies	EUISS	Paris	France	2001
European Union Satellite Centre	SatCen	Torrejón de Ardoz	Spain	2002
The 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
Fundamental Rights Agency	FRA	Vienna	Austria	2007	members: EU states, European Commission, Council of Europe[29]
Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications	BEREC	Riga	Latvia	2010	members: EU states, European Commission[30]
European Systemic Risk Board	ESRB	Frankfurt	Germany	2010	[31]
Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators	ACER	Ljubljana	Slovenia	2009
European Banking Authority	EBA	Paris (since 2019) London (2011–2019)[a]	France (UK till 2019)[a]	2011	[32]
European Securities and Markets Authority	ESMA	Paris	France	2011	[33]
European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority	EIOPA	Frankfurt	Germany	2011	[34]
European Asylum Support Office	EASO	Valletta	Malta	2011[35]
European Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT Systems in the area of freedom, security and justice[36][35]	eu-LISA[37]	Tallinn[38]	Estonia	2012
European Border and Coast Guard Agency	Frontex	Warsaw	Poland	2016[39]	members: EU states, except Ireland, Schengen Area states not members of the EU
European Labour Authority	ELA	Bratislava	Slovakia	2019	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament[40][41]

Executive agencies[]

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

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

Euratom agencies[]

Official name	Abbreviation	Location
Euratom Supply Agency	ESA	Luxembourg City
European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy	F4E	Barcelona

Independent bodies[]

Official name	Abbreviation	Location
European Institute of Innovation and Technology	EIT	Budapest
European Data Protection Supervisor	EDPS	Brussels
European University Institute	EUI	Florence
Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations		Brussels[42]
European Public Prosecutor's Office	EPPO	Luxembourg City[43][44]

Proposed agencies[]

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Established	Members and observers
European Cybersecurity Competence Centre	ECCC	Bucharest	Romania	2021[45]	members: EU states
Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority[46]	HERA			2021

Former agencies[]

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Established	Abolished	Members and observers
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia	EUMC	Vienna	Austria	1997	2007
European Agency for Reconstruction	EAR	Thessaloniki	Greece	2000	2008	members: EU states, European Commission[47]
European GNSS Agency	GSA	Prague	Czechia	2004	2021	members: EU states, European Commission observers: Norway, European Space Agency[23]
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

See also[]

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

References[]

External links[]

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

The following links are all part of the official EU-website.

• EU's main site about agencies
  • Decentralised agencies

Attribution of the seat of EU agencies:

• European Council conclusions, December 2003

Recommended reading:

• Governance of the EU: The Reform Debate on European Agencies Reignited