European Agencies. Development and legal framework

Academic Paper from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: A, University of Malta (European Studies), course: European Politics, Economics and Law, language: English, abstract: Aim of this paper is to understand the role and types of these European Agencies (EAs) and the main problems connected to them. First, we will try to find a definition of Agencies. Starting from the first agencies we will analyse how these developed in their number, structure, role and competencies.

After this, it is important to understand the legal framework in which EAs are established, and to analyse if the agencies are attracted by the community method or not. At this point, we will find several critics, the main rising question concerns the delegation of power, how much competencies can the European Commission delegate to Agencies? Why should the EU delegate power? In order to have basic knowledge to discuss this topic we have to mention the Meroni law-case.

In the academic literature, the EAs are often considered as the fourth branch of governments. What does this mean? After an overview about basics elements of EAs and a discussion about the main problems involved, we will come to our conclusion.