Article 63 of Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation.
| Applies from | 12 February 2030 (act due); requirements apply to procurements started 12 months after that act enters into force |
|---|---|
| Binds | Anyone selling packaging or packaged goods to EU public bodies |
| Evidence | LOCKED read in the EUR-Lex text |
The quiet one. If you sell to European public buyers, this is the article that turns packaging sustainability into a condition of winning work rather than a compliance cost. Art. 63(1) requires the Commission to adopt implementing acts by 12 February 2030 setting MINIMUM MANDATORY requirements for public contracts under Directive 2014/24/EU or 2014/25/EU, but only where the packaging or packaged products are more than 30 percent of the estimated contract value, or of the value of products used by the services being bought. That 30 percent test is the qualifying question to ask yourself, and it is about contract value, not about how heavy or visible the packaging is. Art. 63(2) gives a real run-in: the requirements bite on procurement procedures INITIATED 12 months or later after the act enters into force, so tenders already under way are not caught. Art. 63(3) says the requirements are built on Articles 5 to 11, the same substances, recyclability, recycled content, minimization and reuse rules the rest of this site covers, which means work you do for those articles is the work you do for this one. Art. 63(4) sets how they can appear in a tender: technical specifications, selection criteria, or contract performance conditions. That matters commercially, because a selection criterion can exclude you from bidding while a performance condition only shapes delivery. Art. 63(5) lets a contracting authority derogate in duly justified cases on public security or public health grounds, or where compliance would cause unresolvable technical difficulties. Nothing is set yet: the acts are unadopted, so no figure or specification exists to design against today. Watch item: COM(2026) 590 of 9 September 2026, the Commission proposal for a Regulation on public contracts and concessions, would repeal Directives 2014/23/EU, 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU and amends Regulation (EU) 2025/40 in consequence. Art. 63 is written around two of those Directives, so its cross-references are expected to move even though the substance of the duty is not proposed to change. That proposal is [SIGNALED] and has not been adopted.