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The 'agencies of the European Union' (or 'decentralised bodies of the European Union') are bodies which are distinct from the European Union's institutions, in that they have not been created by the treaties but rather by acts of secondary legislation, in order to accomplish a very specific task. Unlike most of the European Union's institutions established in the treaties, each of these agencies has its own legal personality. Each agency is unique and fulfils an individual function. 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. They may be categorized under the three pillars of the European Union.

Contents

List of agencies

Executive agencies

Proposed agencies

External links

List of agencies

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.
Here, the agencies are listed after different colours for the three respective pillars:
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Official name	Acronym	Location	Est.	Branch
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work	EU-OSHA	Bilbao	1996	★
European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training	Cedefop	Thessaloniki	1975	★
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions	EUROFOUND	Dublin	1975	★
European Environment Agency	EEA	Copenhagen	1994	★
European Training Foundation	ETF	Turin	1994	★
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction	EMCDDA	Lisbon	1993	★
European Medicines Agency	EMEA	London	1995	★
Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market	OHIM	Alicante	1999	★
Community Plant Variety Office	CPVO	Angers	1994	★
Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union	CdT	Luxembourg	1994	★
European Agency for Reconstruction	EAR	Thessaloniki	2000	★
European Food Safety Authority	EFSA	Parma	2002	★
European Maritime Safety Agency	EMSA	Lisbon	2002	★
European Aviation Safety Agency	EASA	Cologne	2003	★
European Network and Information Security Agency	ENISA	Heraklion	2005	★
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control	ECDC	Stockholm	2005	★
European Global Navigation Satellite System Supervisory Authority	?	?	2004	★
European Railway Agency	ERA	Valenciennes/Lille	2004	★
European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union	Frontex	Warsaw	2005	★
Community Fisheries Control Agency	CFCA	Vigo	2005	★
European Chemicals Agency	ECHA	Helsinki	2007	★
European Institute for Gender Equality	?	?	2007	★
European Fundamental Rights Agency	FRA	Vienna	2007	★
European Defence Agency	EDA	Brussels	2004	-
European Institute for Security Studies	ISS	Paris	2001	-
European Union Satellite Centre	EUSC	Torrejón de Ardoz	2002	-
European Police College	CEPOL	Bramshill	2001	x
European Police Office	Europol	The Hague	1999	x
European body for the enhancement of judicial co-operation	Eurojust	The Hague	2002	x

Executive agencies

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

★ Intelligent Energy Executive Agency (IEEA) - located in Brussels

★ Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) - located in Brussels

★ Executive Agency for the Public Health Programme (PHEA) - located in Luxembourg

★ Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency (TEN-TEA) - located in Brussels

Proposed agencies

★ European Telecom Market Authority (ETMA?)

External links

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

★ EU's main site about agencies

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★ First pillar agencies

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★ Second pillar agencies

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★ Third pillar agencies

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★ Executive agencies

★ Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency (TEN-TEA)