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 over 40 agencies, divided into 4 groups:^[1]

Decentralised agencies

Distinct from EU institutions, the agencies of the European Union were set up to accomplish very specific tasks such as promoting environmental protection, transport safety and multilingualism. They span Europe – Dublin to Stockholm, Warsaw to Lisbon – providing services, information and know-how to the general public. Most agencies were categorised under the three pillars of the European Union, but this structure was abolished with the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty. The European Space Agency has been proposed as a future agency of the EU.^[2]

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Established	Members and observers
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work	EU-OSHA	Bilbao	Spain	1994	members: EU states, European Commission[3]
European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training	Cedefop	Thessaloniki	Greece	1975	members: EU states observers: Iceland, Norway[4]
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions	EUROFOUND	Dublin	Ireland	1975	members: EU states, European Commission observers:EFTA[5]
European Environment Agency	EEA	Copenhagen	Denmark	1994	members: EU states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey[6] co-operating: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 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[7]
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction	EMCDDA	Lisbon	Portugal	1993	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament, Norway observers: Turkey[8]
European Medicines Agency	EMA	London	United Kingdom	1995	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway[9]
European Union Intellectual Property Office[10]	EU IPO[11]	Alicante	Spain	1999	members: EU states, European Commission[12]
Community Plant Variety Office	CPVO	Angers	France	1994	members: EU states, European Commission[13]
Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union	CdT	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	1994	members: EU states, European Commission[14]
European Food Safety Authority	EFSA	Parma	Italy	2002
European Maritime Safety Agency	EMSA	Lisbon	Portugal	2002	members: EU states, European Commission, Iceland, Norway[15]
European Aviation Safety Agency	EASA	Cologne	Germany	2003	members: EU states, European Commission, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland[16] observers: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, UNMIK[17]
European Network and Information Security Agency	ENISA	Heraklion	Greece	2005	members: EU states[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 GNSS Agency	GSA	Prague	Czech Republic	2004	members: EU states, European Commission observers: Norway, European Space Agency[20]
European Railway Agency	ERA	Valenciennes and  Lille	France	2004	members: EU states, European Commission, Norway[21]
European Fisheries Control Agency	EFCA	Vigo	Spain	2005	members: EU states, European Commission[22]
European Chemicals Agency	ECHA	Helsinki	Finland	2007	members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Norway[23]
European Institute for Gender Equality	EIGE	Vilnius	Lithuania	2007	members: EU states[24]
European Defence Agency	EDA	Brussels	Belgium	2004	members: EU states without Denmark; European Commission participant: Norway
European Institute for Security Studies	ISS	Paris	France	2001
European Union Satellite Centre	EUSC	Torrejón de Ardoz	Spain	2002
European Police College	CEPOL	Budapest	Hungary	2005	members: EU states associates: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland[25]
European Police Office	Europol	The Hague	The Netherlands	1999
European body for the enhancement of judicial co-operation	Eurojust	The Hague	The Netherlands	2002
Fundamental Rights Agency	FRA	Vienna	Austria	2007	members: EU states, European Commission, Council of Europe[26]
Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications	BEREC	Riga	Latvia	2010	members: EU states, European Commission[27]
European Systemic Risk Board	ESRB	Frankfurt	Germany	2010	[28]
Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators	ACER	Ljubljana	Slovenia	2011
European Banking Authority	EBA	London	United Kingdom	2011	[29]
European Securities and Markets Authority	ESMA	Paris	France	2011	[30]
European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority	EIOPA	Frankfurt	Germany	2011	[31]
European Asylum Support Office	EASO	Valletta	Malta	2011[32]
European Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT Systems in the area of freedom, security and justice[33]	eu-LISA[34]	Tallinn[35]	Estonia	2012
European Border and Coast Guard Agency	EBCGA	Warsaw	Poland	2016[36]	members: EU states, except United Kingdom and Ireland, Schengen Area states not members of the EU

Executive agencies

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

Euratom agencies

Independent bodies

Proposed agencies

Former agencies

Official name	Abbreviation	Location	Member state	Established	Members and observers
European Agency for Reconstruction	EAR	Thessaloniki	Greece	2000	members: EU states, European Commission[38]
European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union	Frontex	Warsaw	Poland	2005

See also

Agencies of the European Union
Operating	Safety and Health at Work Vocational Training Centre Living and Working Conditions Environment Training Foundation Drug Addiction Medicines Intellectual Property Plant Variety Translation Food Safety Maritime Safety Aviation Safety Information Security Disease Prevention and Control Satellite Navigation Railways Border and Coast Guard Fisheries Chemicals Gender Equality Fundamental Rights Defence Security Studies Satellite Centre Police College Police Judicial co-operation Energy Regulators Regulators of Electronic Communications Banking Authority Securities and Markets Authority Insurance and Pensions Authority Innovation and Technology
Proposed	Space (currently separate organisation)
Executive	Competitiveness and Innovation Education, Audiovisual and Culture Health and Consumers Trans-European Transport Network Research Council
Euratom	Euratom Supply Agency ITER and Fusion Energy (Fusion for Energy)
Former	Reconstruction (transferred to DG Enlargement)

• 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