1. Collecting methodological information on regional statistics
THE MARS PROJECT
Collecting methodological information on regional statistics

2. Project background and intention
2000: Collection of methodological information (meta-data) for regional statistics in candidate countries of East Europe
2002/2003: Creation of the MARS database with information collected in 2000
2006 New MARS project: Update and extension of the existing MARS datasets and inclusion of the new candidate countries

3. Project structure Understand and evaluate the existing MARS dataset
Prepare the collection of new information (test and final questionnaire)
Collect and evaluate the information
Metadata import into the MARS database

4. Domains covered
All domains of the regional database (i.e. except Urban Audit data)
In total 13 domains divided into 32 sub-domains
For methodological reasons “Energy” became a separate domain

5. Problems
Administrative problems
Methodological problems
Technical problems
Problems with cooperation

6. Administrative problems
Original timing too ambitious
working periods for participating countries too short
National Statistical Institutes in some countries not responsible for the data collection for all domains and sub-domains
Information had to be collected by the NSI from the responsible administrations

7. Methodological problems
Use of information already existing at Eurostat difficult
Different quality per country
Needed information missing
Information coming from test questionnaires
Insufficient number of countries volunteered
Comparison of countries for each questionnaire difficult

8. Technical problems
Misclassification of some topics in the existing (old) MARS database
MARS software needs to be updated
MARS structure (content) needs to be adapted to the new questionnaire

9. Difficult cooperation with some countries
Close to the deadline for the delivery of the final questionnaires, some countries informed Eurostat that they will not send any information at all
Some countries could not keep the deadlines for the completion of all questionnaires
They still can send completed questionnaires

10. State of play 22 Sept. 06

11. State of play - 22/09/2006 Excellent Good
Estonia, Ireland, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia
Good
Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, France, Cyprus, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, United Kingdom

12. State of play - 22/09/2006 Could be improved No contact Boycott
Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg
No contact
Malta, Sweden
Boycott
Germany, Austria

13. Future work Evaluation of the received questionnaires
Contacts with participating countries in order to check unclear responses
If necessary visits to different countries to solve difficult topics
Import meta information into the database

14. Thank you for listening questions are welcome