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The agencies of the European Union (formally: ''Agencies, decentralised independent bodies, corporate bodies and joint undertakings of the European Union and the Euratom'') are bodies of the European Union and the 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 The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's most important centra ...
) or an EU body of other type (such as the
European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the EU Member States. It is one of the largest supranational lenders in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solution ...
Group entities, the
European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute and an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established by the member states to contr ...
, the
European Stability Mechanism The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is an intergovernmental organization located in Luxembourg City, which operates under public international law for all eurozone member states having ratified a special ESM intergovernmental treaty. It ...
or the
Unified Patent Court The Unified Patent Court (UPC) is a common patent court open for participation of member states of the European Union, and created by the "Agreement on a Unified Patent Court" (UPC Agreement or UPCA), which is provisionally applicable since 19 ...
) * other EU institutions * other EU bodies lacking juridical personality, including the advisory bodies, the independent offices held by a single person (
European Ombudsman The European Ombudsman is an inter-institutional body of the European Union that holds the institutions, bodies and agencies of the EU to account, and promotes good administration. The Ombudsman helps people, businesses and organisations facing ...
, 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 the Euratom, regardless whether possessing juridical personality ( European Research Infrastructure Consortium, European political party, European political foundation, European grouping of territorial cooperation,
Societas Europaea A ''societas Europaea'' (, ; "European society" or "company"; plural: ; abbr. SE) is a public company registered in accordance with the corporate law of the European Union (EU), introduced in 2004 with the Council Regulation on the Statute ...
, 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 the Euratom. Some of the agencies, decentralised independent bodies and joint undertakings of the European Union and the 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
(under the former I Pillar)


Common Security and Defence Policy The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is the European Union's (EU) course of action in the fields of defence and crisis management, and a main component of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The CSDP involves the dep ...
agencies
(under the former II Pillar)


Area of freedom, security and justice agencies
(under the former III Pillar)


European Supervisory Authorities (of the European System of Financial Supervision)


Single Resolution Mechanism The Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) is one of the pillars of the European Union's European Union banking union, banking union. The Single Resolution Mechanism entered into force on 19 August 2014 and is directly responsible for the resolution ...
bodies (of the
European banking union The banking union of the European Union is the transfer of responsibility for banking policy from the national to the EU level in several EU member states, initiated in 2012 as a response to the Eurozone crisis. The motivation for banking union w ...
)


Executive agencies of the EU

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


Euratom agencies


Decentralised independent bodies established through secondary legislation of the EU/Euratom

Thé list includes the two decentralised bodies other than agencies, established as EU juridical persons through secondary legislation of the EU/Euratom.


Other EU secondary law corporate bodies of the EU

Thé list includes the two bodies other than agencies and decentralised bodies, established as EU juridical persons through secondary legislation of the EU/Euratom.


Joint undertakings

A joint undertaking is a juridical person and a subsidiary body of the EU or the Euratom, established through an agreement between the
European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
, 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


of the Euratom


Non-existing decentralised bodies


Proposed and abandoned


Transformed or dissolved


Agencies


Euratom joint undertakings

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


See also

* Directorate-General *
European integration European integration is the process of industrial, economic, political, legal, social, and cultural integration of states wholly or partially in Europe or nearby. European integration has primarily come about through the European Union and its ...
– participation by non-EU states in EU initiatives * Glossary of European Union concepts, acronyms, & jargon * Meroni doctrine


References


Notes


External links


EU's main site about agencies


* Attribution of the seat of EU agencies
European Council conclusions, December 2003
* EU agencies on social media *
Official social media accounts of EU agencies
on Twitter and elsewhere *
Unofficial mirrors of social media accounts of EU agencies
on
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