The article titled “The European Order for the Disclosure and Preservation of Electronic Evidence. Regulation (EU) 2023/1543 and the Limits of Equating European Orders with the Evidentiary Procedures of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Comments on Draft Law No. L272/2026,” authored by Associate Professor Radu Slăvoiu, Ph.D., of the Faculty of Law at “Nicolae Titulescu” University in Bucharest, and Lecturer George Zlati, Ph.D., of the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at “December 1, 1918” University in Alba Iulia. 

This article analyzes European orders for the disclosure and preservation of electronic evidence, as governed by Regulation (EU) 2023/1543, effective as of August 18, 2026, and draft law L272/2026 regarding its implementation into domestic law. It examines issues left open by the Regulation, ranging from the foreign element to the regime governing cryptographic keys under the provider’s control. Of greatest practical relevance is the discrepancy between the classification of data under the Regulation and that under domestic law, where data requested solely for the purpose of identifying the user—treated as minimally intrusive—are classified as traffic data. The authors conclude that defining the European order through domestic procedural law imposes the limitations of national evidentiary procedures on an instrument of Union law, which may result in a conflict with the requirements of a similar domestic case and a risk of illegality that only becomes apparent ex post.

Keywords: electronic evidence; European Production Order; European Preservation Order; Regulation (EU) 2023/1543; Bill L272/2026; similar domestic case; traffic data; evidentiary procedures.