European agencies working across Europe for you

Some sixteen specialised and decentralised EU agencies have been established to support the EU Member States and their citizens. The agencies are an answer to a desire for geographical devolution and the need to cope with new tasks of a legal, technical and/or scientifi c nature. The majority of them started their activities in 1994–95, after a decision by the European Council in Brussels. Apart from the 16 current agencies, the creation of fi ve new agencies (a European Railway Agency, a European Network and Information Security Agency, a European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, a European Chemicals Agency and a Fisheries Agency) has been approved and they will be established in 2004/05.