EU decentralised Agencies are public authorities set up under European law and enjoying their own legal personality. Unlike the EU institutions, which are created by the Treaties, the Agencies are established under secondary legislation with a view to fulfilling a task of technical or scientific nature or a specific management task specified in their respective founding regulation.
Joint Undertakings (JUs) are public-private partnership bodies set up for an efficient execution of EU research, technological development and demonstration programmes. The members of these JUs are typically the European Union (represented by the European Commission) and industry-led associations, as well as other partners. JUs adopt their own research agenda and award funding mainly on the basis of open calls for proposals.
They carry out legal, technical or scientific tasks and support the preparation and implementation of EU policies in a large range of specialised areas.
Find more information about the EU Agencies in the interactive map below