IT Directors Group
20 and 21 October 2004
BECH Building, 5, rue Alphonse Weicker, Luxembourg-Kirchberg
Room QUETELET
9.30 a.m. - 5.30 p.m.
MINUTES OF THE MEETING
14
Minutes of the ITDG meeting
20-21st October 2004 – Luxembourg
Agenda point / Presentation / Discussion / Conclusions /2. / CURRENT ACTIVITIES
2.1.1 / IT Infrastructures and Services for Eurostat
Eurostat presented the core business of Unit B2. This unit aims to provide services and computer skills necessary for the development of the statistical, administrative and office automation applications of Eurostat.
For that purpose, it fulfils various functions :
- supply the service of Data Centre by managing computer infrastructure of Eurostat and ensuring the link with the Commission Data Centre.
- supply the User support for all the IT components.
- create and manage the IT master plan.
Eurostat is a Commission DG and follow the informatics rules defined by DG DIGIT. It is closely associated in IT governance process definition.
Eurostat currently manages more than one hundred statistical information systems (all the Data Life Cycle is covered) and it is therefore imperative to coordinate the development of these systems for reason of economy, efficiency and interoperability. The production domain organisation remains decentralised and this method of decentralised production management generates associated costs which have to be better controlled (link to CVD presentation). / (5 interventions)
Member States asked to be informed about the CVD process with a view to share common tools and solutions.
It was stressed the importance of the IT maintenance and that the budget is mainly dedicated to this.
Eurostat has not the legal means to distribute commercial software licences but lobbying actions should be organised.
2.1.2 / IT Normalisation And Collaborative Infrastructures For The ESS (Statistical Programme Theme 14)
Eurostat presented a progress report on activities including tools and services for collaboration and for data transmission. CIRCA had been highly successful and had been taken over by DG Informatics.
Key objectives were now to achieve the use of GESMES and to achieve monitored data transmission through the single entry point envisaged in the CVD strategy (point 3.1).
The single entry point was being implemented via EDAMIS (Electronic Data files Administration and Management Information System), an integrated environment incorporating the existing tools (notably STADIUM, STATEL and EDIFLOW) with various improvements and additional functionality.
Eurostat presented a provisional list of the themes where GESMES use would be required. / (9 interventions)
Member States emphasised the importance of continued progress on the use of GESMES, which they saw as facilitating the ultimate objective of automating data transmission. The Eurostat strategy needed to be promoted in the working groups dealing with different domains.
The proliferation of small datasets in some domains caused complications both for producers in Member States and also for the ECB. Eurostat needed to pay attention to the reliability of its data transmission service.
Member States also mentioned the use of GESMES for large data files (Eurostat confirmed that this was already possible). The importance of ensuring that legal acts specified data formats in ways which reflected the agreed strategy was also mentioned. / Eurostat’s strategy for the single entry point and for the list of appropriate areas for GESMES use was accepted by Member States.
Eurostat would provide Member States with more detailed information on the EDAMIS project and on the targets for implementation of the single entry point.
Eurostat would also provide an action plan on GESMES implementation for the identified areas.
2.1.3 / Reference data and metadata warehouses (Statistical Theme 15)
Eurostat presented a summary of the recent and of the future work program for theme 15. Free dissemination of all public data had been successfully introduced on 1st October 2004. In order to achieve this target the following actions were taken: separation of reference and dissemination environment, improvement of the existing browsers, creation of bulk download facilities and migration to more powerful computers.
Last not least all datasets were documented in a
coherent way using an elaborated form of the SDDS standard.
In the short term Eurostat foresees the following improvements: Development of a common browser serving COMEXT and NewCronos, access to NewCronos via keywords.
Within the next two years Eurostat will completely revise the current NewCronos system which is a) difficult to maintain, b) too rigid to allow for cross domain requests. An essential step in the revision of NewCronos will be a harmonisation of the current coding system.
Eurostat has made great progress in the documentation of its data. The integration of the existing metadata system will be further enhanced.
The data user shall be able to find all relevant documentation together with the data in one coherent architecture. / (1 intervention)
In order to further exchange of experiences, the Dutch delegate invited Eurostat to study their solution for electronic data dissemination “Statline” (in the context of the Common Dissemination Platform). / All statistical offices are confronted to similar problems. Exchange of experience or even tools can result in economy in development and maintenance of the individual technical solutions.
2.1.4. / Data security and statistical confidentiality
The IT security officer explains that general IT security of Eurostat is strongly dependent of the Commission policies and rules as issued by the DG IT and the Security Directorate. On this matter Eurostat has mainly to implement these policies and rules and adapt them whenever necessary and control their application.
But there is a security domain where Eurostat has a greater role: protection of confidential data received from MS. This protection is a legal obligation (reg; 1588/90). Rules, procedures and tools cover the following areas: transmission of data to Eurostat, reception, storage, access, output control. For transmission Eurostat offers tools like Stadium and Statel: they are strongly recommended but no obligation as MS are responsible for transport of their data up to Eurostat. Internal protection is strongly formalised and the existing Manual for protection of confidential data (dated 1996) will be soon replaced by a more exhaustive document. In particular the access granted for scientific purposes (reg. 831/2002) is described in details. Output control is done manually or with incorporated software or using tool like Argus. / (8 interventions)
Participants asked a lot questions focusing mainly on the data transmission tools Stadium and Statel.
It was noted that only 20-25% of files are sent through Stadium, which might indicate that these tools are too difficult to use. It was suggested that Eurostat should push its own services to use these tools more frequently. This discussion was continued under agenda item 2.1.2, where Eurostat presented its plans for EDAMIS and for the “single entry point” within the CVD strategy.
Latvia asked for a clear recommendation on the use of TESTA; Eurostat responded that TESTA was supported but was not required. The requirements for ensuring secure transmission were not changed by the use or non-use of TESTA. .
Netherlands and others : why transportation is only the responsibility of MS if they use tools provided by Eurostat ? France was not aware of this responsibility rule.
Some participants (Netherlands, France) were also worried about the future of Argus and suggested using scarce resources on generally accepted tools like Argus... / It is reminded that MS responsibility for transportation is clearly stated in the existing Manual approved by the Statistical Confidentiality Committee. It is considered that this is an interesting discussion but more of a legal nature beyond the scope of this meeting. This could be taken up with the Statistical Confidentiality Committee.
3.1. / DISCUSSION POINTS
Integrated statistical production process - CVD
Eurostat presented a document to share experiences and identify improvement actions regarding integrated statistical production processes, both within a single statistical office or among a network of statistical organisations such as the ESS. Business process modelling, shared data repositories and systems interoperability are key factors to successfully achieve such integration.
The work that was done under the first CVD initiative and the activities and objectives of the new CVD project were illustrated.
The ITDG was asked to:
· Report on current national initiatives in terms of statistical production process integration
Identify joint actions to improve integration of processes among the ESS / (9 interventions)
There was general strong support for the initiative and to continue the work in this area. Members States asked to be informed about the process with a view to share common tools and solutions.
Some Member States pointed out the risk of such a project and so the importance to prioritise and go step wise. Validation seemed to be the phase were there is more to gain and where an effort should be concentrated.
It was stressed the importance of being guided by the business process analysis in the development of the project. / · The problem of an integrated statistical production process seems to be present in all Member States. The project must continue with a prioritisation of the different steps, in line with the business process.
· Short term results are needed in areas like validation and specific parts of the statistical productions where possible building blocks can be identified (Demetra, Τ-Argus).
· An exchange of information is necessary to be kept informed of further developments and of the possibility of sharing common tools.
3.2 / SDMX
Eurostat presented the SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange) initiative, which is sponsored by Eurostat, ECB, BIS, OECD, UNSD, IMF and the World Bank. From the ESS perspective, SDMX offered the prospect of a coherent set of XML-based standard formats for transmission and dissemination of data and metadata, together with the tools needed to implement the SDMX architecture. Eurostat planned to use SODI (point 3.3) as an alignment (pilot) project for the use of SDMX standards within the ESS. Work on SDMX, including SODI, could be financed through IDAbc (point 3.7). / (10 interventions)
Most Member States were positive about the potential of SDMX, while emphasising the difficulty of understanding the voluminous and highly technical documentation which had been provided up to now. There was support for the idea of establishing standards through implementation, but the alignment projects needed to be well coordinated between the different sponsoring organisations.
Member States expressed their interest to be involved in SDMX activities. The main means for this would be their participation in pilot projects and their access to the clearest possible information.
OECD was aiming for a fast implementation of SDMX standards for national accounts data in the NAWWE (National Accounts World Wide Exchange) project; this had a different focus from SODI, which concentrated on fast delivery of short-term indicators for the management of economic and monetary union in the EU.
In working with SDMX, the slow progress in implementing GESMES should be kept in mind. ECB confirmed that SDMX inherited its core ideas from GESMES and that the work already done on GESMES implementation would also serve for SDMX.
It was noted that SDMX standards could be used for all kinds of statistics and not only for economic data. / Member States approved Eurostat’s strategy for SDMX within the ESS. Existing working groups (and the planned SODI task force) would be used to follow up the work. Eurostat would work with the other SDMX partners to provide clearer explanations on SDMX.
3.3 / SODI
Eurostat presented the SDMX Open Data Interchange, an alignment project of SDMX. This project has evolved from the Common Dissemination Platform initiative and has been already approved by the FROCH group in September, 2004; a pilot will start soon, with FR, DE, SE and UK, covering one monthly and one quarterly indicator. The first implementation phase will concentrate on the primary European economic indicators. Eurostat emphasized that the FROCH mandate reflected a strong demand from users in the area of the PEEI; it was a project for statisticians, not just for IT departments. / (5 interventions)
Member States concerned agree to participate in the pilots; there is a high-level commitment in the Member States; although not all questions have been solved. One especially interesting issue is whether the legal obligation on Member States to transmit data is fulfilled when data are obtained through the “pull” mechanism. / Eurostat wants to start the pilots with an expert meeting in late November and will invite the pilot countries as soon as a suitable date has been found. The short-term deliverables will be defined as soon as possible. OECD and ECB are in favour of the project and will observe the pilots. Eurostat will reflect on how to involve other Member States who are interested in this approach.
Eurostat stressed that the scope of this project goes beyond the IT dimension.
3.4 / OSS
Eurostat presented an action plan on Open Source Software, including an OSS repository for statistical software and the publication of guidelines / (10 interventions)
All Member States are interested in the subject; most wished to concentrate explicitly on statistical OSS and not to cope with general-purpose software. They expressed a general interest in legal and liability questions. The cost aspects will be investigated. / Eurostat will propose a detailed action plan which concentrates on statistical OSS, and communicate to the Member States the progress made by the Commission on a European OSS licence as well as other legal issues. Specific cases such as Argus and Demetra will be investigated.
3.5. / Remote access to confidential data
The IT security officer explains that the current legal framework concerns only access for scientific purposes and, of the two possibilities offered, none deals with a remote access. Nevertheless remote access is the future and CEIES has clearly expressed its opinion on this topic.
After reviewing the papers discussed in well known statisticians conferences, it appears that remote access covers two access methods: (a) Remote execution where a researcher submits a program and receives the output later by email. (b) Remote facilities where the researcher performs the analysis and can immediately see the answer on the screen.
Many countries have facilities along the lines of (a) but, apart from the Danish system, facilities along the lines of (b) are still under development.