What Article 39 requires
Manufacturers (or their Article 17 authorised representative) must draw up an EU Declaration of Conformity for each packaging unit, asserting that the essential requirements set out in Annex II Part 1 are met. Template structure: Annex VIII (the technical documentation itself is Annex VII, and the assessment procedure is Article 38). The DoC and the technical documentation are kept available to market-surveillance authorities for five years after the last unit is placed on the market — ten years for reusable packaging. A single combined declaration may cover several EU regimes.
When Article 39 applies
One line per dated paragraph. Applies — the date has passed. Firm — written in the regulation, nothing in the pipeline can push it back. Conditional — a floor: the obligation starts on that date, or a set number of months after the act it waits on enters into force, whichever is later.
| Paragraph | Date | What starts | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 39 | EU Declaration of Conformity | Applies |
Annexes Article 39 calls
Annex II — Packaging categories. Classifies packaging for the purposes of Article 6. Table 1 lists the packaging formats; Table 2 sets the categories against which the "recycled at scale" assessment is made. Recital 28 ties the recyclability grades to these categories. Part 1 also carries the 11 essential requirements that any packaging placed on the EU market must meet, which the Article 39 declaration asserts against. No numeric threshold per grade is confirmed on primary sources — do not quote one, and note that no third table is attested. Text on EUR-Lex
Annex VIII — EU Declaration of Conformity — model template. Required structure and field list for the Article 39 EU Declaration of Conformity: identification of packaging, manufacturer (and Article 17 representative if any) details, harmonised standards / common specifications applied, signatory and place/date. The DoC module must mirror this template field-for-field. Text on EUR-Lex
Related articles
Read the text
Article 39 on EUR-Lex · Regulation (EU) 2025/40, full text
Legal review of 2026-09-02
Each date above is a literal read from the regulation or the Commission guidance, never derived by arithmetic from entry into force. A date present in the reference with no entry in the catalogue fails our build.