EU classified documents which are no longer required may be destroyed, taking account of regulations on archives and of the Commission's rules and regulations on document management and archiving, and in particular with the Common Commission-Level Retention List.

EUCI of the level of CONFIDENTIEL UE/EU CONFIDENTIAL and above shall be destroyed by the RCO of the responsible EUCI registry on instruction from the holder or from a competent authority. The RCO shall update the logbooks and other registration information accordingly.

For documents classified SECRET UE/EU SECRET or TRES SECRET UE/EU TOP SECRET, such destruction shall be performed by the RCO in the presence of a witness who shall be cleared to at least the classification level of the document being destroyed.

The registrar and the witness, where the presence of the latter is required, shall sign a destruction certificate, which shall be filed in the registry. The RCO of the responsible EUCI registry shall keep destruction certificates of TRES SECRET UE/EU TOP SECRET documents for a period of at least 10 years and for documents classified CONFIDENTIEL UE/EU CONFIDENTIAL or SECRET UE/EU SECRET for a period of at least five years.

Classified documents, including those classified RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED, shall be destroyed by methods which shall be defined in implementing rules and which shall meet relevant EU or equivalent standards.

Computer storage media used for EUCI shall be destroyed in accordance with procedures laid down in implementing rules.