Managing European Commission records and archives

SUMMARY OF:

Decision (EU) 2021/2121 on records management and archives

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE DECISION?

The decision lays down rules about preserving the documents used in the European Commission’s operations and daily work, no matter what form they take, the medium used, their age, or where they are located, specifically concerning:

managing the records and archives;
preserving the archives and opening them to the public;
depositing the historical archives at the European Union’s (EU) Historical Archives Service at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence.

The rules are designed to facilitate the exchange of information, provide evidence of action taken, comply with legal obligations and secure the Commission’s legacy.

KEY POINTS

Records

A ‘record’ means information received and created in the form of a document, a collection of data or another form, in a digital or analogue medium, captured in an official repository and managed and maintained as evidence and as an asset. Under the rules, the record must be:

analysed to determine the electronic management system to be used, and in which official repository system it is to be preserved;
created in line with requirements set out for the relevant type of record;
systematically created in electronic form, with some exceptions, or digitised if originally in analogue form; and
kept in official electronic repositories.

Capture and registration

Commission departments must regularly review the types of information created or received to identify which ones are to be ‘captured’ in an official electronic repository.

The captured records must not be altered, but they may be removed or replaced by subsequent versions until the file they belong to is closed.
Documents must be registered if they contain important information which is not short-lived or if they could involve action or follow-up.

Legal effects of electronic signatures, seals, time stamps and registered delivery services

An electronic signature is considered legally equivalent to a handwritten signature.
An electronic seal is presumed to indicate the data’s integrity and the correctness of its origin.
An electronic time stamp is presumed to denote its accuracy and integrity.
Data transmitted using an electronic registered delivery service is presumed to indicate the integrity of the data, addressee, and date and time of sending and receipt.

Document validity and admissibility

A document is considered to satisfy the validity or admissibility criteria if:

the person from whom it originates is identified;
the document’s context is reliable and it meets conditions that guarantee its integrity;
the document complies with requirements set out in the applicable EU or national law;
in the case of an electronic document, the document is created in a way that guarantees the integrity, reliability and usability of its content and the accompanying metadata*.

Information sharing

Data and information must be made available and shared as widely as possible within the Commission, unless access is limited for legal reasons.
Directorates-general (DGs) and equivalent departments must make files as widely accessible as the sensitivity of their content allows.

Storage and preservation

Storage and preservation are under the following conditions:

records are stored in the form in which they were created, sent or received or which preserves the authenticity, reliability and integrity of their content;
the content is readable throughout the storage period by anyone with authorised access;
the origin or destination of the record and the date and time of capture or registration of electronic documents must be clear from the accompanying metadata.

Retention, transfer and elimination

How long files are kept for the various categories is set out for the whole Commission through regulatory instruments.
DGs must assess which categories of files are transferred to the Commission’s historical archives or eliminated.
Metadata is retained as evidence of records and files and their transfer or elimination.
Information classified as ‘CONFIDENTIEL UE/EU CONFIDENTIAL’ or higher is not transferred to the Historical Archives Service.

The Commission’s Historical Archives Service

The service:

guarantees the authenticity, reliability and integrity of, and access to, the records, files and archives;
ensures the material protection and the integrity of the metadata;
makes records and files available on request to DGs and equivalent departments;
undertakes, by agreement with DGs as necessary, a second review of all transferred records, files and archives;
initiates the declassification of classified documents;
opens the Commission’s historical archives to the public after the 30-year restriction expires, with exceptions related to privacy, commercial interests and intellectual property;
deposits the Commission’s archives that are open to the public at the EU’s historical archives at the EUI.

The Commission’s historical archives at the EUI

The EUI is the main access point for historical archives open to the public.
The Commission gives the EUI access to digitised copies of records held in analogue form, where possible, and descriptions of all the archives deposited. It promotes interoperability between its archives systems and those of the EUI.

Implementing rules

Each director-general or head of department puts in place the necessary organisational, administrative and physical structure and provides the staff required for their departments to implement this decision and the implementing rules, which are regularly updated taking account in particular of:

developments regarding record and archive management, academic and scientific research and standards;
developments in information and communication technologies;
transparency, public access to documents and the opening to the public of archives;
record harmonisation.

FROM WHEN DOES THE DECISION APPLY?

It has applied since 6 July 2020.

BACKGROUND

For further information, see:

Historical archives (European Commission)
Implementing Rules for Decision C(2020) 4482 on records management and archives (European Commission).

KEY TERMS

Metadata. Information describing the context, content and structure of records and their management over time for the purposes of, inter alia, retrieval, accessibility and reuse.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Commission Decision (EU) 2021/2121 of 6 July 2020 on records management and archives (OJ L 430, 2.12.2021, pp. 30–41).