As announced in our December 2023 Article, at the end of 2023, amendments were made to the Regulation on Unified Technical and Technological Requirements and Procedures for the Storage and Protection of Archival Material and Documentary Material in Electronic Form (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia,” No. 116/202) (hereinafter: Amendments to the Regulation).

A significant step has been taken to alleviate the burden from the private sector regarding the implementation of the Regulation, specifically in the context of “electronic archiving.”

The innovations introduced by the Amendments to the Regulation concerning the storage of electronic documents are reflected in the distinction between documentary material with a permanent retention period, representing archival material, and (ordinary) documentary material in electronic form that does not have a permanent retention period.

For documentary material in electronic form that does not have a permanent retention period, the obligation of the creator and holder is to ensure its integrity, authenticity, credibility, completeness, and usability through a qualified electronic signature or a qualified electronic seal.

Therefore, electronic archiving, by the rules and procedures of reliable electronic storage, will be applied exclusively to documentary material in electronic form with a permanent retention period – archival material, with a significant innovation introduced if such a document is submitted to a state body and/or state organization, a territorial autonomy body, a local self-government unit, an institution, a public enterprise, or an entity with public powers, reliable storage is ensured through that public entity as the holder of an electronic document.

Practically, this means that any electronic document with a permanent retention period is already submitted to the Tax Administration, SBRA (Serbian Business Registers Agency), CROSO (Central Register of Compulsory Social Insurance), and similar public entities is exempt from the obligations related to electronic archiving.

Additionally, the provision requiring that all creators and holders of documentary material and archival material in electronic form have been obliged to conduct electronic archiving in a software solution – an information system for reliable electronic storage, has been deleted. The eArchive application will be used for electronic archiving purposes by state bodies and organizations, territorial autonomy bodies, and local self-government units, institutions, public enterprises, and entities with public powers (hereinafter referred to as “Authorities“). Accordingly, the previously prescribed obligation for all creators and holders to grant access to permanently stored documentary material to the relevant public archive through eArchive application has been removed.

Regarding the submission of archival material – documentary material that is permanently stored after 30 years from its creation, creators, and holders submit the request in electronic form through the eGovernment Portal.