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. 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 legislation, either as an EU institution or as an EU body of another type
  • other EU institutions
  • other EU bodies lacking juridical personality, including the advisory bodies, the independent offices held by a single person, and the 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 or lacking it

    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.
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.

Existing agencies

They are divided into the following groups:

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. 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.

Single market agencies

Official nameAbbreviationLocationMember stateMembers and observers
European Agency for Safety and Health at WorkEU-OSHABilbaoSpain

Area of freedom, security and justice agencies

Official nameAbbreviationLocationMember stateMembers and observers
European Union Agency for Law Enforcement TrainingCEPOLBudapest
Bramshill 		Hungary

European supervisory authorities

European supervisory authorities
Official nameAbbreviationLocationMember stateMembers and observers
European Banking AuthorityEBAParis
London 		France

Banking union (Single Resolution Mechanism) bodies

bodies
Official nameAbbreviationLocationMember stateMembers and observers
Single Resolution BoardSRBBrusselsBelgium

Common Security and Defence Policy agencies

agencies
Official nameAbbreviationLocationMember stateMembers and observers
European Defence AgencyEDABrusselsBelgium

Executive agencies of the EU

Executive agencies are created by the European Commission for a fixed period.
Official nameAbbreviationLocation
European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency EISMEABrussels
European Education and Culture Executive AgencyEACEABrussels
European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive AgencyCINEABrussels
European Research Executive AgencyREABrussels
European Research Council Executive AgencyERCEABrussels
European Health and Digital Executive AgencyHaDEABrussels

Euratom agencies

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 nameAbbreviation
Bio-based IndustriesBBI
Clean SkyCS
Electronic Components and SystemsECSEL
Fuel Cells and HydrogenFCH
High-Performance ComputingEuroHPC
Innovative Medicines InitiativeIMI
Single European Sky Air Traffic Management ResearchSESAR
Shift-2-RailS2R

of Euratom

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 nameAbbrev.LocationMember stateMembers and associates
European Institute of Innovation and TechnologyEITBudapestHungary

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 nameAbbreviationLocationMember stateEst.
European Data Protection BoardEDPBBrusselsBelgium2018
Authority for European Political Parties and European Political FoundationsAPPFBrusselsBelgium2014

Non-existing decentralised bodies

Proposed and abandoned

Transformed or dissolved

Agencies

Euratom joint undertakings

  • Schnell-Brüter- Kernkraftwerksgesellschaft mbH'
  • Hochtemperatur- Kernkraftwerk GmbH