EU Extends eCoC Deadline to 29 November 2026: What It Means for Manufacturers and the UK

A transitional arrangement for eCoC implementation

Following the 168th meeting of the European Commission's Working Group "Motor Vehicles" (MVWG) on 6 May 2026, EU Member States have agreed a transitional arrangement that softens the impact of the 5 July 2026 eCoC obligation for jurisdictions whose national infrastructure will not be ready in time.

Under the new arrangement, manufacturers in the EU may continue to use paper Certificates of Conformity, or print-outs of the eCoC, until 29 November 2026 at the latest. The change is intended to give national access points (NAPs) and manufacturers enough time to test and operate the new electronic registration process without putting vehicle registrations at risk.

Why the extension was granted

The European Commission opened the discussion at the 168th MVWG meeting by reminding Member States of their legal obligation to have data networks ready to receive eCoCs as structured electronic data from 5 July 2026. Based on information collected from Member States, however, the EC confirmed that at least a handful of Member States will not have a fully functioning national access point, data retrieval or processing capability in place by the deadline, putting the whole vehicle registration process at risk in those jurisdictions.

Three technical factors were cited in the minutes:

What the transitional arrangement actually allows

The arrangement is narrower than it first appears. Under Article 37(10) of Regulation (EU) 2018/858, Member States agreed to allow, exceptionally and for a strictly limited period, the continued use of paper CoCs and currently established national procedures, including national eCoC procedures, until 29 November 2026 at the latest.

Crucially, the relief applies only where national infrastructure is lacking, or was placed less than four months before 5 July 2026, leaving manufacturers without an adequate window to test mass data uploads. In Member States whose NAP is fully operational on time, the 5 July obligation still bites.

A print-out of the structured data, signed and stamped, is sufficient to be accepted as a valid duplicate, without the additional measures specified in Annex VIII to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/683.

What this means for the UK and the VCA

The UK eCoC mandate sits in Assimilated Regulation (EU) 2018/858, the retained version of the same EU framework that has just been amended in practice. The Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) has historically aligned the UK implementation timeline with the EU one, including the 5 July 2026 go-live date.

It is therefore likely, but not yet confirmed, that the VCA will extend the UK deadline in step with the EU transitional arrangement. The VCA has not made any public statement at the time of writing, and UK manufacturers should continue to plan against the existing 5 July 2026 mandate until official guidance is issued.

We will be tracking the VCA position closely and will update this article once an announcement is made.

Six months until the November deadline: what to do now

Whether your jurisdiction operates on the original 5 July date or the new 29 November cut-off, the practical preparation is identical. Use the window to:

• Confirm which NAPs your business needs to submit to, and whether each is operational on 5 July or relying on the transitional arrangement
• Generate and validate test IVI XML files against the eCoC 2.0 schema for each relevant Member State
• Run end-to-end XAdES digital signature integration tests against each NAP API
• Build a fallback process for producing signed and stamped print-outs while the transitional arrangement is in force
• Train operations and homologation staff on both the digital submission and the paper-duplicate workflow