The politics of gender in the field of European agencies

Agencies are important instruments of European governance. The European Union (EU) itself differentiates between four main types of agencies: agencies under Common Security and Defense Policy (EURATOM) agencies and bodies, executive agencies, and decentralized agencies. Two main ideas stood at the basis of creating European-level independent agencies: first, the need for independent expert knowledge to support implementation and monitoring of various European policies, and, second, discussions around centralization vs. power delegation in a changing context of legitimacy in the EU. Recent analyses of EU agencies show that, despite the intention for agencies to bring decentralization and improved control by member states over a variety of policy issues, in practice the activities of most agencies are under the control of the European Commission as a “parent” rather than a “partner”. The institutional and political compromises found during the long negotiation period had a direct impact on the functioning of the new structure.