Accessing the Web-access to the “Database” using Firefox (http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/extraction/evalight/EVAlight.jsp?A=1&language=en&root=/theme8/nrg/nrg_135a, called Eurostat Visual Application), I get a consistent error in downloading files. After the first step of specifying the query and the second step of table definitions, I select “For Databases” and then click on download. The file downloaded is called a ZIP file, but is not of zip format and is always about 410 bytes long. When I click download a second time, it opens up another window in the browser with a link. When I click this link, then I get the data I requested. I’ve come across this bug several times with different data sets.

With both Google Chrome and Internet Explorer (7), I cannot get downloading of the “for database” option to work correctly at all.

So, I reported this to Eurostat today. I’ll see if they give a response.

I’ll save you a rant on Eurostat generally, but summarize it with: “Great Data. Bad Access Tools.”