EC Declaration of Conformity.
The EC Declaration of Conformity (CoC) is also often referred to by the terms CE declaration, CE certificate or CE declaration of conformity. If you are not familiar with the contents of the New Approach Directives, this multiplicity of terms used does not make it any easier to understand what exactly is meant by this document and why this document plays a crucial role in marketing your products in the EU.
When should you prepare an EC Declaration of Conformity?
You must prepare this statement if you are the manufacturer, private label holder or importer of products that fall within the scope of the New Approach Directives.
Why do you need to prepare an EC Declaration of Conformity?
After you as manufacturer, importer or private label holder have gone through the complete conformity process and have demonstrated that your product meets the essential requirements of the applicable directives, you must draw up the CoC. With this you declare that you are responsible for the conformity of the product with laws and regulations. After drawing up the DoC, you may apply the CE marking to the product. This marking is not a seal of approval, but the conclusion of your successfully completed self-certification process.
How should you make the EC Declaration of Conformity available?
The MoU is the substantiation that your product meets the legal requirements and may be freely traded on the EU market. Depending on the guidelines that apply to your product, the legal requirements for making your MoU available also differ. In some cases you have to provide the MoU with your product, in other cases you have to make it available online, and in yet other cases you only have to make it available to the next link in the chain.
What should the EC Declaration of Conformity look like?
The mandatory content and format of the AoA in turn depends on the applicable guidelines. In those directives there is often a model declaration in the annexes. If this is lacking in the directive, the CoC must be based on the model declaration from Decision 782/2008/EC.
To get an idea of how different the content of an MoU can be, you can download an example below in which a MoU is formatted according to:
- Directive 2009/48/EU on the safety of toys and
- Regulation 2016/245 personal protective equipment
Want to know more?
Would you like to know more about the EC Declaration of Conformity for your products? Then we would like to have a conversation with you. Together we can then explore the possibilities of supporting you in the preparation, maintenance and proper distribution of your EC Declarations of Conformity.
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