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 — Categories and parameters for assessment of recyclability of packaging. Categories and parameters for assessing packaging recyclability under Article 6, in four tables. Table 1 lists the packaging materials, types and categories; Table 2 the categories for the "recycled at scale" assessment; Table 3 the recyclability performance grades — grade A is 95 % or higher, grade B 80 % or higher, grade C 70 % or higher, and below 70 % the packaging unit is technically non-recyclable; Table 4 the non-exhaustive parameters for the design-for-recycling criteria. The criteria that turn a packaging unit into a letter wait on the Article 6(4) delegated act, due by 1 January 2028. 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.