#eif11p preservation of information is an underlying principle of the European Interoperability Framework.

It includes this recommendation:


Legislation requires that decisions and data are stored and can be accessed for a specified time. This means that records1 and information in electronic form held by public administrations for the purpose of documenting procedures and decisions must be preserved and be converted, where necessary, to new media when old media become obsolete. The goal is to ensure that records and other forms of information keep their legibility, reliability and integrity and can be accessed as long as needed subject to security and privacy provisions.

To guarantee the long-term preservation of electronic records and other kinds of information, formats should be chosen to ensure long-term accessibility, including preservation of associated electronic signatures or seals. In this regard, the use of qualified preservation services, in line with Regulation (EU) 910/2014, can ensure the long-term preservation of information.

For information sources owned and managed by national administrations, preservation is a purely national matter. For information that is not strictly national, preservation becomes a European issue. In that case, an appropriate ‘preservation policy’ should be applied by the Member States concerned, to cope with any difficulties arising if the relevant information is used under different jurisdictions.


Source: European Interoperability Framework - Promoting seamless services and data flows for European public administrations, COM(2017)134, 23 March 2017, url (Available in the languages of the EU Member States)