Archival materials and Archival activities

The Law on Archival materials and Archival activities came into force on February 2021, in the Republic of Serbia. The aforementioned law prescribes a number of obligations for economic entities. We provide answers to the most important questions about obligations, entities that are obliged to fulfill them, deadlines, as well as foreseen penalties in the rest of the text.

According to the Law, what are the obligations of business entities?

Business entities, as creators and owners of archival material and documentary material, are obliged to conscientiously keep the documentation in an orderly and safe condition in the form in which it was created. Also, among other things, they are obliged to:

  • provide appropriate space and equipment for the accommodation and protection of documentation;
  • designate a responsible professional person for the protection and handling of documentation;
  • record, label, classify, date and archive documentation;
  • hand over archival material to the competent archive under the conditions and within the deadlines stipulated by the Law;
  • ensure the permanent storage of archival material in electronic form, its maintenance, migration, i.e. transfer to new carriers in prescribed formats until the archival material is handed over in electronic form to the competent public archive;
  • keep an archive book on the prescribed form;
  • submit to the competent archive a copy of the archive book for the previous year no later than April 30 of the current year for documentary material created in the previous year;
  • obtain the opinion of the competent archive before undertaking measures related to documentation (status changes, physical relocation, adaptation of premises, opening of bankruptcy or liquidation, microfilming, digitalization, etc.);
  • select archival material and set aside for destruction worthless documentary material whose storage period has expired, one year from the date of expiry of the established period;
  • inform the competent public archive about its establishment, as well as about all changes that are important for archival material (change of status and/or name, organizational changes, change of address, opening of liquidation or bankruptcy proceedings) within 30 days at the latest from the date of their occurrence .
Archiving documents

What legal acts do business entities have to pass?

According to the Law, business entities must have the following documentation:

  • general act on the method of recording, classifying, archiving and keeping archival material and documentary material;
  • list of categories of archival material and documentary material with retention periods;
  • general act on the method of recording, protection and use of electronic documents;

What is the deadline by which business entities must submit to the competent archive a copy of the archive book and all binding documentation provided for by the Law?

Business entities should fulfill the stated obligation by April 30, 2023.

Do entrepreneurs have the above obligations?

Entrepreneurs are only obliged to conscientiously keep the documentation in an orderly and safe condition in the form in which it was created, while other business entities have all the above-mentioned obligations.

What penalties are prescribed by law if legal entities do not comply with their obligations?

For failure to comply with prescribed obligations, the Law provides for fines in the amount of 50,000 to 2,000,000 RSD for a legal entity, or from 5,000 to 150,000 RSD for a responsible person in a legal entity.

If you need help in fulfilling the above obligations, our team will professionally fulfill all obligations on your behalf, prepare the necessary documentation and hand it over to the competent archive. For additional information, feel free to contact us by phone: 064/9311025 or by email: office@fincon.rs