(1)

Council Regulation (EU) No 216/2013 (1) provides that the Official Journal of the European Union (‘the Official Journal’) published in electronic form (‘the electronic edition of the Official Journal’) is to bear a qualified electronic signature or qualified electronic seal as defined in Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2). Regulation (EU) No 216/2013 also sets out an obligation to publish the qualified certificates for electronic signature or for electronic seal and renewals thereof on the EUR-Lex website in order to allow the public to verify the authenticity of the electronic edition of the Official Journal.

(2)

The authenticity, integrity and inalterability of the electronic edition of the Official Journal can be ensured by a variety of technical means. It is necessary for such means to offer guarantees comparable to those provided by qualified trust services, as defined in Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, on both a technical and an organisational level. The need to amend Regulation (EU) No 216/2013 each time a new solution or technology is to be employed or when the legal framework governing such solutions and technologies changes should be avoided.

(3)

It is necessary to lay down clear rules reconciling the requirement of inalterability of the Official Journal with the obligations stemming from Union legal acts on the protection of personal data and from decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union to have certain information removed. Such removal should be carried out by making available a new version of the electronic edition of the Official Journal concerned, accompanied by a notice to that effect. The original version of the electronic edition of the Official Journal concerned should be kept in the archives of the Publications Office for an unlimited period under technical and organisational conditions which ensure that the original version can be disclosed only in accordance with Union law, in particular rules governing the right to access documents and the protection of personal data.

(4)

The Publications Office has put in place contingency measures which minimise the risk of not being able to publish and make available the electronic edition of the Official Journal on the EUR-Lex website.

(5)

In exceptional situations where, despite the contingency measures put in place, it is not possible to publish the Official Journal on the EUR-Lex website and the publication is done in printed form, the Publications Office should provide information concerning such publication on the EUR-Lex website as soon as possible. For the sake of legal certainty, it is necessary to ensure that the electronic edition of the Official Journal subsequently made available to the public on the EUR-Lex website becomes the only authentic edition and that it produces legal effects.

(6)

In order to provide the maximum benefit to citizens in terms of ease of access to the Official Journal, as well as to ensure legal certainty, it is also appropriate to confer exclusive authenticity status on the electronic versions of the few authentic printed editions of the Official Journal published after the entry into force of Regulation (EU) No 216/2013.

(7)

Regulation (EU) No 216/2013 should therefore be amended accordingly,

(1)

Article 2 is amended as follows:

(2)

Article 3 is replaced by the following: