# Agencies of the European Union

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

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 |
| European Centre for the Development of Professional Training | Cedefop | Thessaloniki | Greece | 1975 | members: EU states observers: Iceland, Norway |
| European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions | EUROFOUND | Dublin | Ireland | 1975 | members: EU states, European Commission observers: EFTA |
| European Environment Agency | EEA | Copenhagen | Denmark | 1994 | members: EU states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey co-operating: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia |
| European Training Foundation | ETF | Turin | Italy | 1994 | members: EU states, European Commission |
| European Medicines Agency | EMA | Amsterdam (since 2019) London (1995–2019) | Netherlands ( UK until 2019) | 1995 | members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway |
| European Union Intellectual Property Office | EUIPO | Alicante | Spain | 1994 | members: EU states, European Commission |
| Community Plant Variety Office | CPVO | Angers | France | 1994 | members: EU states, European Commission |
| Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union | CdT | Luxembourg City | Luxembourg | 1994 | members: EU states, European Commission |
| 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 |
| European Aviation Safety Agency | EASA | Cologne | Germany | 2003 | members: EU states, European Commission, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland observers: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, UNMIK |
| European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control | ECDC | Stockholm | Sweden | 2005 | members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway |
| European Union Agency for the Space Programme | EUSPA | Prague | Czech Republic | 2021 | members: EU states, European Commission observers: Norway, European Space Agency |
| European Railway Agency | ERA | Valenciennes and Lille | France | 2004 | members: EU states, European Commission, Norway |
| European Fisheries Control Agency | EFCA | Vigo | Spain | 2005 | members: EU states, European Commission |
| European Chemicals Agency | ECHA | Helsinki | Finland | 2007 | members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament observers: Iceland, Norway |
| Agency for Support for BEREC | BEREC Office | Riga | Latvia | 2010 | members: EU states, European Commission |
| 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 |

#### 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 |
| 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 | eu-LISA | Tallinn | Estonia | 2012 | |
| European Border and Coast Guard Agency | Frontex | Warsaw | Poland | 2016 | members: EU states, except Ireland, Schengen Area states not members of the EU |
| European Union Drugs Agency | EUDA | Lisbon | Portugal | 1993 | members: EU states, European Commission, European Parliament, Norway observers: Turkey |
| European Union Agency for Cybersecurity | ENISA | Athens | Greece | 2005 | members: EU states |
| European Union Agency for Asylum | EUAA | Valletta | Malta | 2011 | |
| European Institute for Gender Equality | EIGE | Vilnius | Lithuania | 2007 | members: EU states |
| Fundamental Rights Agency | FRA | Vienna | Austria | 2007 | members: EU states, European Commission, Council of Europe |
| Anti-Money Laundering Authority | AMLA | Frankfurt | Germany | 2024 | members: EU states |

### European supervisory authorities

European supervisory authorities (of the European System of Financial Supervision)
| Official name | Abbreviation | Location | Member state | Est. |
| European Banking Authority | EBA | Paris (since 2019) London (2011–2019) | France ( UK till 2019) | 2011 |
| European Securities and Markets Authority | ESMA | Paris | France | 2011 |
| European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority | EIOPA | Frankfurt | Germany | 2011 |

### 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 |

### 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; 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 European Commission for a fixed period.
| Official name | Abbreviation | Location |
| European Cybersecurity Competence Centre | ECCC | Bucharest |
| Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises | EASME | Brussels |
| Education, Audiovisual 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 |
| 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 | 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 | 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 | Belgium | 2014 |

## Non-existing decentralised bodies
### Proposed and abandoned

| Name | Abbreviation | Fate |
| Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority | 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

* Schnell-Brüter- Kernkraftwerksgesellschaft mbH' (SBK)
* Hochtemperatur- Kernkraftwerk GmbH (HKG)