3.8 Other EU institutions

(I) Introduction

These include:

• The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund.
• The European Central Bank (ECB) and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB).
• The European Ombudsman and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS).
• Decentralised EU agencies.

Please note that the following agencies are not EU organisations:

• Council of Europe (Strasbourg, France);
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (London, UK);
• European Patent Office (Munich, Germany).
• The European Space Agency (ESA) (Paris).

(II) The European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund

The main features of the European Investment Bank (EIB) are:

• The EIB is both a Community institution and a bank. It provides long-term loans, mainly for capital investment in infrastructure, energy and industrial modernisation, particularly in the poorer regions of the member states.
• Loans are also made to the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries covered by the Lomé Convention and the Arab Mediterranean states (Maghreb and Mashreq). It also lends amounts, under the EU's Phare and TACIS programmes, to countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as, on a smaller scale, to a number of Asian and Latin American countries and, since 1995, to South Africa.
• It raises the bulk of its capital on the international financial markets and has an AAA credit rating.
• The members of the EIB are the 27 member states.
• Its Board of Governors consists of 27 government ministers (usually the finance minister), one from each of the member states. It also has a part-time Board of Directors and a full-time Management Committee of the bank's President and Vice-Presidents.

Some key dates are:

• The EIB was established in 1958, under the Rome Treaty.
• In 1991 the EIB contributed to the establishment (in April 1992) of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD is not an EU institution.
• The European Investment Fund (EIF), involving both the EIB and privately owned banks in investments in Trans-European networks (TENs) and in the encouragement of SMEs, was agreed in December 1992 and set up in March 1994.

(III) The European Central Bank

The main features of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) are:

• The ECB, together with the EU national central banks, comprises the European System of Central Banks (ESCB).
• The EU non-eurozone central banks are members of the ESCB with special status. They do not, for example, take part in the decision-making regarding the single monetary policy for the eurozone and the implementation of such decisions. The non-eurozone countries are currently the UK, Denmark and Sweden, the 2004 accession member states (excluding Slovenia) and Romania and Bulgaria.
• The basic tasks of the ESCB are:
• To define and implement the monetary policy of the Community (currently with a 0-2% inflation target to ensure price stability).
• To conduct foreign exchange operations.
• To hold and manage the official foreign exchange reserves of the member states.
• To promote the smooth operation of payment systems.
• To contribute to the smooth conduct of policies pursued by the competent authorities relating to the prudential supervision of credit institutions and the stability of the financial, system.   
• The ECB is managed by:
• The Governing Council. This is the ECB's main decision-making body. It is composed of the 6 members of the Executive Board and the 13 central bank governors from the eurozone countries. It meets on a fortnightly basis to decide, for example, the eurozone's interest rates.
• The Executive Board: the President, the Vice-President, and 4 other members, appointed by the eurozone states after consultation with the European Parliament and the Governing Council. All are full-time employees with a non-renewable term of office of up to 8 years. The Presidents to date are:
• Wim Duisenberg (1999-2003).
• Jean-Claude Trichet, from 2003.
• The General Council consists of the President, the Vice-President of the ECB plus the central bank governors of the 27 member states (including the non-eurozone member states).

Some key dates are:

• The 1992 Maastricht Treaty established both a European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and a European Central Bank (ECB), to be set up as soon as the decision was taken to proceed to stage 3 of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), commencing with the "irrevocable locking together of currencies".
• The European Monetary Institute (EMI) was set up in January 1994 at the beginning of stage 2 of EMU. It was the precursor of the ECB and the ESCB and is no longer operative.
• The ECB came into operation on 1 June 1998.
• The euro was launched on 1 January 1999 with 11 of the then 15 countries (Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Finland, Austria, Spain and Portugal).
• Greece joined the euro on 1 January 2000.
• Euro notes and coins were introduced on 1 January 2002.
• Slovenia joined the euro on 1 January 2007.

(IV) The European Ombudsman and the European Data Protection Supervisor

The main features of the European Ombudsman are:

• The Ombudsman (a 19^th century Scandinavian invention) is empowered to receive complaints from any citizen of the EU concerning instances of maladministration in the activities of the EU institutions or bodies.
• He/she cannot penalise offenders; all he/she can do is to forward a critical report to the Parliament and to the institution against which the complaint was made.

Some key dates are:

• The Maastricht Treaty (1992) required the European Parliament to appoint an Ombudsman.
• The Ombudsmen to date are:
• Jacob Söderman (1995-2003).
• P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, from 2003.

The main function of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) is:

• To ensure that all EU institutions and bodies respect people's right to privacy when processing their personal data.

The key dates are:

• The position was created in 2001.
• The first EDPS, Peter Johan Hustinx, was appointed by a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council in December 2003. His tenure is for 5 years.

(V) Decentralised EU agencies

The EU's specialised decentralised agencies operate in very wide-ranging policy areas. Their functions are reasonably self-evident from their titles. They operate in all 3 of the current "pillars" of the EU:

• European Community domain (1^st pillar).
• Common Foreign & Security Policy (2^nd pillar).
• Police & Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (3^rd pillar).

Main source: www.europa.eu.int/agencies