Parliament’s powers: Designating the seats of EU decentralised agencies

Written by Micaela Del Monte.

There are no provisions in the EU Treaties or in secondary EU law on the procedure for deciding on the location of an EU agency. Article 341 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) refers only to the EU institutions. This legal vacuum has generated different practices over time and power struggles among the Member States. The most recent example of conflicting national interests was the case of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Following the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU, representatives of the governments of the Member States decided to relocate the agency from London to Amsterdam, but the decision was challenged by Italy and the Municipality of Milan. Subsequent rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) clarified its lack of jurisdiction over decisions of Member States’ government representatives. These political decisions have no legal effect under EU law.

The Court nevertheless took the opportunity to provide clear indications about how Article 341 TFEU should be interpreted. According to the Court, it is for the EU legislature, and not the Member States, to decide on the location of the EU agencies, because Article 341 TFEU is applicable to EU institutions only, and they are clearly listed in Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). While the decision of the EU legislature implies a certain degree of political choice, it is nevertheless subject to judicial review.

The Court’s clarification was welcomed by Parliament, which in two resolutions, in 2018 and 2019, had complained about its lack of involvement in the selection procedure for locating agency’s seats, and demanded a role in the evaluation of criteria, on an equal footing with the Commission and the Council.

At the time of writing, the European Parliament and the Council are in the process of deciding the location of the Anti-Money-Laundering Agency (AMLA).

Read the complete briefing on ‘Parliament’s powers: Designating the seats of EU decentralised agencies‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.