The Agencification Process and the Evolution of the EU Administrative System

The chapter examines the rise and consolidation of European agencies within the EU. Its focus is on European agencies both as an organizational development and as a method of policy delivery. It situates the agencification process in the context of the evolution of the EU administrative system. The overall argument is that the agencification process has been both the product of forces internal to the EU administration and a force in itself, capable of orientating its future evolution. In the current phase, which refers to the post-crisis years and reaches out to present, a process of reorganization and growth of the EU administration has taken place. What is left for European agencies under the current circumstances, remains to be seen.