Guidelines on termination of qualified trust services : technical guidelines on trust services

This document proposes guidelines to SB and (Q)TSP aimed at facilitating the implementation of the provisions related to trust services of the eIDAS Regulation in the area of termination of trust services. Termination of QTS is addressed here in a broad sense covering from partial to complete cessation of a QTS. Partial termination includes termination of one or more of (technical) service entries listed in the corresponding trusted list that are (collectively) used to indicate the grant of qualified status for the provision of a specific type of QTS. The target audience of this document are (Q)TSP (including individuals, businesses and public administrations) who intend to start providing or are currently providing QTS and those EU MS SB designated to carry out supervisory activities under the eIDAS Regulation. Conformity assessment bodies (CAB) may also be interested in this document. The objective of this document is to support QTSP making available QTS and SB in their respective tasks and duties regarding the termination and verification of compliance with the eIDAS Regulation as well as the management of qualified status through the publication of an updated national trusted list. These guidelines cover the procedures and formats for the termination and the supervision of the termination of a QTS. The guidelines shall enable SB to establish the rules, requirements and recommendations for a QTSP to manage the life cycle of the supervision of the QTS it provides, meeting the requirements of the eIDAS Regulation until and beyond the termination of those services. The body of this document is purposefully kept short in terms of focusing on the effective high level guidelines and recommendations on termination of QTS provision as follows, while annexes are used to provide detailed guidance after brief description of the relevant eIDAS related requirements (section 1.2): - General recommendations for (Q)TSP and SB (section 1.3) - Recommendations on termination plan (section 1.4) - Recommendations for SB (section 1.5) - Recommendations for (Qualified)TSP (section 1.6).