Article 39 Routine destruction and deletion of RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED information

The Commission shall not amass large quantities of classified information.

Originating departments shall routinely review small amounts for destruction or deletion at short intervals. A review shall take place both for information stored on paper and for information stored in CIS at regular intervals.

Staff shall destroy or securely delete any RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED documents that are no longer required, subject to any archiving requirements for the original document.

Staff shall not be required to inform the originator if they destroy or delete copies of RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED documents.

Draft material containing classified information shall be subject to the same disposal methods as finalised classified documents.

Only approved shredders shall be used for destroying RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED documents. Level 4 of DIN 32757 and Level 5 of DIN 66399 shredders are suitable for destroying RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED documents.

The shred from approved shredders may be disposed of as normal office waste.

All media and devices containing RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED information shall be properly sanitised when they reach the end of their lifetime. The electronic data shall be destroyed or erased from information technology resources and associated storage media in a manner that gives reasonable assurance that the information cannot be recovered. Sanitisation shall remove data from the storage device, and also remove all labels, markings and activity logs.

Computer storage media shall be given to the LSO or Local Informatics Security Officer and/or Registry Control Officer for destruction and disposal.