CSA Article 49. Preparation, adoption and review of a European cybersecurity certification scheme

The Commission should be empowered to adopt European cybersecurity certification schemes concerning specific groups of ICT products, ICT services and ICT processes. Those schemes should be implemented and supervised by national cybersecurity certification authorities, and certificates issued under those schemes should be valid and recognised throughout the Union. Certification schemes operated by the industry or by other private organisations should fall outside of the scope of this Regulation. However, the bodies operating such schemes should be able to propose that the Commission consider such schemes as a basis for approving them as a European cybersecurity certification scheme.

The governance of the European cybersecurity certification framework takes into account the involvement of Member States as well as the appropriate involvement of stakeholders, and establishes the role of the Commission during the planning and proposing, requesting, preparing, adopting and reviewing of European cybersecurity certification schemes.

The Commission should prepare, with the support of the European Cybersecurity Certification Group (the ‘ECCG’) and the Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group and after an open and wide consultation, a Union rolling work programme for European cybersecurity certification schemes and should publish it in the form of a non-binding instrument. The Union rolling work programme should be a strategic document that allows industry, national authorities and standardisation bodies, in particular, to prepare in advance for future European cybersecurity certification schemes. The Union rolling work programme should include a multiannual overview of the requests for candidate schemes which the Commission intends to submit to ENISA for preparation on the basis of specific grounds. The Commission should take into account the Union rolling work programme while preparing its Rolling Plan for ICT Standardisation and standardisation requests to European standardisation organisations. In light of the rapid introduction and uptake of new technologies, the emergence of previously unknown cybersecurity risks, and legislative and market developments, the Commission or the ECCG should be entitled to request ENISA to prepare candidate schemes which have not been included in the Union rolling work programme. In such cases, the Commission and the ECCG should also assess the necessity of such a request, taking into account the overall aims and objectives of this Regulation and the need to ensure continuity as regards ENISA’s planning and use of resources.

Following such a request, ENISA should prepare the candidate schemes for specific ICT products, ICT services and ICT processes without undue delay. The Commission should evaluate the positive and negative impact of its request on the specific market in question, especially its impact on SMEs, on innovation, on barriers to entry to that market and on costs to end users. The Commission, on the basis of the candidate scheme prepared by ENISA, should be empowered to adopt the European cybersecurity certification scheme by means of implementing acts. Taking account of the general purpose and security objectives laid down in this Regulation, European cybersecurity certification schemes adopted by the Commission should specify a minimum set of elements concerning the subject matter, scope and functioning of the individual scheme. Those elements should include, among other things, the scope and object of the cybersecurity certification, including the categories of ICT products, ICT services and ICT processes covered, the detailed specification of the cybersecurity requirements, for example by reference to standards or technical specifications, the specific evaluation criteria and evaluation methods, as well as the intended assurance level (‘basic’, ‘substantial’ or ‘high’) and the evaluation levels where applicable. ENISA should be able to refuse a request by the ECCG. Such decisions should be taken by the Management Board and should be duly reasoned.

In order to raise awareness and to facilitate the acceptance of future European cybersecurity certification schemes, the Commission may issue general or sector-specific cybersecurity guidelines, for example on good cybersecurity practices or responsible cybersecurity behaviour highlighting the positive effect of the use of certified ICT products, ICT services and ICT processes.

The examination procedure should be used for the adoption of implementing acts on European cybersecurity certification schemes for ICT products, ICT services or ICT processes, for the adoption of implementing acts on arrangements for carrying out inquiries by ENISA, for the adoption of implementing acts on a plan for the peer review of national cybersecurity certification authorities, as well as for the adoption of implementing acts on the circumstances, formats and procedures of notifications of accredited conformity assessment bodies by the national cybersecurity certification authorities to the Commission.