The European Reference Environment (ERE) is an environment in which all participating organisations can exchange statistical data of known content and quality.
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| Aim and Benefits |  top |
The aim of the European Reference Environment is to provide a reliable source of statistical data for statisticians at regional, national and European levels. Statistical data will have harmonised meaning through the use of agreed metadata. The Metadata Service will provide a single authoritative source and definitive record of common metadata for use within the European Reference Environment.
The expected benefits for the users are:
These benefits will lessen the burden on organisations responsible for producing and disseminating statistics. Increasing demands are being made by an increasing number of customers and by the diversity of products available for the production or dissemination of statistics.
| Concept | top |
The European Reference Environment (ERE) comprises a logical collection of data which are harmonised and validated at each stage of statistical analysis. Data are structured according to agreed standards, and the associated metadata have agreed meanings.
Metadata are data which describe and qualify statistical data, such as title, reference period, nature of variable, universe, quality, reliability, compatibility, footnotes, comments, and methodological notes. For example, the statistical method used to collect and aggregate the sample, or the classification system used to categorise individuals’ occupations. The ERE needs two types of metadata: "administrative" metadata which allow users to know where, from whom, and in what condition the data are available, and; "statistical" metadata which qualified the statistical data and can be accessed.
The European Reference Environment will, in time, comprise a group of individual local physical systems connected via the DSIS network.
| Work Programme | top |
The aim is for each DSIS organisation to make their ERE conformant data available to authorised users by putting in place its own reference environment, alongside a local metadata service, to meet both its own needs and those of other statistical organisations. The local metadata services will be populated partly with DSIS common metadata downloaded from the Master Metadata Service, and partly from local sources. It is important to achieve concrete benefits for the DSIS organisations by further developing and extending the use of DSIS Metadata and ERE.
The ERE will be implemented in phases. The perceived benefits of moving to the reference environment will encourage its timely adoption across all sectors and organisations. A phased approach is being taken to harmonising the metadata supporting the statistical processes across the production, reference and dissemination environments.
Specifically, the work has primarily focused on identifying common metadata for the ERE. User requirements and technical specifications have been produced for the ERE and the "Master Metadata Service" (MMS) database. Development of the MMS prototype is ongoing and is currently in a trial phase. EDI message exchange formats recommended for statistical data and metadata are GESMES and CLASET. The aim of the future work programme is to:
DSIS Metadata services are being trialed with partners from Member States and Eurostat units. The aim of the trial is to prove the concepts of the DSIS metadata service specification, agreed by the STNE Working Group. Countries such as Greece, Spain, France, Norway as well as Eurostat are involved. The trial partners were selected because of the variety of organisational and technical infrastructures which they encompass.
Currently a web site is under trial. This allows users to browse metadata definitions. There is also a procedure to request copies for integration with local services.
These wide ranging and complex tasks are co-ordinated by the DSIS Metadata Task Force. The Metadata Task Force examines the technical and organisational issues of the ERE and DSIS metadata and searches for pragmatic solutions. Trials of the ERE will be undertaken soon.
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