Agency of the European Union

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:

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.

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

The following links are all part of the official EU-website.

Attribution of the seat of EU agencies: