EU Agencies: Legal and Political Limits to the
Transformation of the EU Administration
Over the last two decades, EU legislation has
established a growing number of subsidiary bodies commonly referred to as EU
decentralised agencies. Recent years have witnessed the conferral of
increasingly significant powers to these bodies to the point where the
successful implementation of many of the EU's policies is now dependent upon
the activities of EU agencies. While EU agencies have become indispensable in
terms of their practical importance, the lack of a legal basis in the EU
Treaties to establish and empower new bodies as well as the lack of an adequate
framework in secondary law means that there exists little control over EU
agencies. This results in critical issues, such as the absence of clear
criteria prescribing when an agency may be empowered to act and also the
failure to consider the interests of the actors normally responsible for the
implementation of EU law, such as the Member States and the Commission.
Providing the first comprehensive overview of the
development of agencification in the EU, this book explores the question: What
are the political and legal limits to EU agencification? Analysing EU agencies
from an institutional and constitutional perspective, the book traces the
development of EU agencies, explores the different tasks they perform,
investigates the limits to agencification, and discusses the legal basis for
such agencies.
