Starting from January 1, 2024 companies are imposed to new obligations related to keeping of archival and documentary materials in Serbia.

All Creators and Holders of archival materials are required to perform electronic archiving using software solutions or other IT systems for reliable electronic storage. Public authorities are obliged to conduct electronic archiving of documentation through the use of the new software “eArchive,” which is part of the archival information system.

Companies and other participants in the private sector will from now on submit the list of categories of archival and documentary materials with retention periods to the competent public archive through the eArchive portal for its approval.

In addition, certain changes are also introduced regarding the mandatory destruction of documentary material whose retention period has expired. Requests for destruction will no longer be submitted to the competent archive in paper form as before, but in electronic form through designated eArchive software solution. The competent public archive decides on the request and approves it also through eArchive.

Creators and Holders of documentary material which needs to be stored permanently will be obliged to create a request in electronic form and submit it to the public archive electronically, upon expiration of a 30-year retention period from the date of creation. After submitting archival material to the competent public archive, creators and holders will no longer have access to the provided material.

For further information about these new obligations, please contact us at office@vrlegal.rs or visit www.vrlegal.rs