Compliant Book

Machinery EU declaration of conformity

Last reviewed: 11 September 2026~5 min read

One document, signed by a person, naming a person. The machinery declaration of conformity carries something the CRA declaration does not: the name and address of the person authorised to compile the technical file, who must be established in the Union. Getting that field wrong is one of the most common defects market surveillance authorities find.

Annex V Part A — declaration of conformity

  1. Business name and full address of the manufacturer and, where applicable, the authorised representative.
  2. A statement that the declaration is issued under the sole responsibility of the manufacturer.
  3. Identification of the machinery — description, function, model, type, batch or serial number, and commercial name where different.
  4. An express declaration that the machinery fulfils the relevant provisions of the Regulation and, where appropriate, a similar declaration for other Union legislation or standards the product conforms to.
  5. References to the harmonised standards used, with dated references, and to other technical specifications used.
  6. Where a notified body was involved: its name, address and identification number, a description of the procedure carried out, and the number of the certificate issued.
  7. The name and address of the person authorised to compile the technical file, who must be established in the Union.
  8. Place and date of the declaration, identity and signature of the person empowered to draw it up on behalf of the manufacturer.
The Union-established person. If you are a manufacturer outside the EU, this field cannot be a name at your head office. It has to be a person established in the Union who can produce the technical file to an authority. In practice that is your authorised representative, and it needs to be a real, contactable arrangement — a mandate, in writing, that the person has actually accepted. What an authorised representative must do →

Annex V Part B — declaration of incorporation

For partly completed machinery. The important differences:

  • It states which essential health and safety requirements have been applied and fulfilled — not that all of them have.
  • It includes the statement that the partly completed machinery must not be put into service until the final machinery has been declared in conformity with the Regulation.
  • It undertakes to transmit relevant information on the partly completed machinery in response to a reasoned request from a national authority.
  • No CE marking is affixed on the basis of this declaration.

Practical points

Language

The declaration accompanies the machinery and is drawn up in the language required by the Member State where the machinery is placed on the market. For pan-EU sales, keep the layout tight; you will be translating it many times.

One declaration, all applicable legislation

Machinery commonly also falls under EMC, the Low Voltage Directive, RoHS, ATEX, the Outdoor Noise Directive or — for connected machinery — the Cyber Resilience Act. Issue one declaration listing everything applicable. Separate declarations per directive is how manufacturers end up with inconsistent claims about the same product.

Keep it with the file

A copy of the declaration is itself part of the Annex IV technical file, and both are retained for ten years.

Sources