Agencies of the European Union
Distinct body of the European Union
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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
Area of freedom, security and justice agencies
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 | [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 |
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;[42] 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 |
| European Education 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 |
| Global Health EDCTP3 | Global Health EDCTP3 |
| 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[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
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[45] | Belgium | 2014 |
Non-existing decentralised bodies
Proposed and abandoned
| Name | Abbreviation | Fate |
|---|---|---|
| Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority[46] | 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
See also
- Directorate-General
- European integration – participation by non-EU states in EU initiatives
- Glossary of European Union concepts, acronyms, and jargon
- Meroni doctrine
