In accordance with its strategic plan, the Board of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) has undertaken an analysis of the first tranche of review reports of agencies dating from the inception of the process in 2005 until December 2009. The intention of this analysis is to fulfil several purposes: (1) the report can be viewed as a self-evaluation undertaken by ENQA; it captures, reflects on and evaluates review work carried out so far; (2) the report provides valuable information on the use and applicability of the ESG in agency reviews; this information will be of interest not only to ENQA and its members but to other E4 members and beyond, particularly when considering the scope and content of any future review of the ESG themselves; (3) lessons learned from the project will help to shape the second round of reviews which is about to start; and (4) the report will prove useful in the general evolution of the respective missions of and methodologies used by ENQA and the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR). In total, 34 reports were analysed. The recommendations and conclusions are grouped under six headings: (1) The level of compliance and the "maturity" of the agency, the legal contexts in which agencies work, and the year of review; (2) Panels and their Judgements, including terminology and consistency; (3) Problem areas--for the agencies or with the ESG?; (4) Training; (5) Impact of the ESG and their role in safeguarding QA in HE (have they done the job so far?); and (6) Issues for any review of the ESG themselves. The report is structured to allow the reader to see the main commentary and conclusions first, followed by an annex with a more detailed analysis against each of the ESG in order to demonstrate how the conclusions were reached. Appended are: (1) Annex (1) to the report on the review of agencies: detailed analysis of the reports in terms of individual standards in the ESG; and (2) Annex 2: Reports on agency reviews conducted between September 2005 and December 2009 (with date of publication of report on ENQA website).