Maps request: EU-27 countries (spmap, shp2dta)

[François Briatte <f.briatte@ed.ac.uk>]

Dear all,

I have been experimenting with spmap and shp2dta in order to produce
simple maps showing the incidence rates of a few diseases in the
EU-27. The best shapefile I could find is provided by the European
Commission in partnership EuroGeographics and is located at this URL:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/gisco/popups/references/administrative_units_statistical_units_1

This shapefile, however, contains additional information about
overseas territories that I do not need; as a result, my maps are not
ideally drawn, with thick country borders and with the actual European
continent showing as a very small map in the top-right corner of the
maps.

My request is thus, is anyone on Statalist aware of better shapefiles
for the EU-27? Or perhaps can I 'crop' the map nicely with spmap? As
an example of the kind of map I am trying to produce, here is a link
to a map by the European Cancer Observatory:

http://eu-cancer.iarc.fr/cancer-10-lung.html,en#block-9-15

Thanks in advance for you help,

François

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