7.6 Retention of documents

It should be noted that all supporting documents (such as invoices, public procurement files, contracts, etc.) shall be made available at least until 31st December 2035 (corresponding to 5 years from the end date of the EUI).

Other possibly longer statutory retention periods remain unaffected, as might be stated by national law, or in any case until any on-going audit, verification, appeal, litigation or pursuit of claim or investigation by the European Anti- Fraud Office (OLAF) are completed. The conditions for archiving project documentation will be as follows:

  • The documents shall be kept either in the form of the originals, or certified true copies of the originals, or on commonly accepted data carriers including electronic versions of original documents or documents existing in electronic version only.
  • The documents shall be kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data were collected or for which they are further processed.
  • The procedure for certification of conformity of documents held on commonly accepted data carriers with the original document shall be laid down by the national authorities and shall ensure that the versions held comply with national legal requirements and can be relied on for audit purposes.
  • Where documents exist in electronic form only, the computer systems used shall meet accepted security standards that ensure that the documents held comply with national legal requirements and can be relied on for audit purposes.
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