What a bunch of morons. Europe is a lost cause.
I couldn't agree more, especially that I live in EU and those stupid regulations make my life as a hobbyist much harder in many areas.
-Cars are becoming more and more complicated. Stupid Emissions regulations force manufacturers to pack more and more electronics into cars which results in extreme failure rates. Engine compartments are stuffed with gazilions of sensors, exhaust recirculation systems, fancy injectors etc. And all electronic circuits fail after some time. It's not uncommon for new cars to be towed to service station with as little as 20k km on the odometer because some dumb sensor failer and car refuses to start....
-economy is suffering greatly, because companies want to avoid enormous amounts of environmental regulations. If a company wants to run a business that can in theory emit any kind of substance to the environment (which would be almost every kind of business) they often have to setup special departaments who only deal with environmental stuff. Many companies are even selling their production sites and moving to far east - this is not the problem of labor costs, because it's rather cheap in eastern EU, but because of legal problems
-more from the hobby viewpoint - dumpster-diving is problematic, and not nearly as rewarding as it was 10yrs ago. This is because everything has to be recycled with a certificate etc.
-it's hard to get post production scrap from manufacturing companies, because they have to account for every kilogram of waste they produce
-any equipment is MUCH more expensive in EU than it is in US and I think that large portion of that price difference comes from the fact, that manufacturers have to do very costly validation tests for the equipment to be allowed for sale in EU.
-in eastern EU we don't earn that much (compared to western EU or US), yet all the taxes for fossil fuels are the same, which makes gasoline and diesel very expensive (for example i can buy roughly 3-4 liters of petrol for my hourly wage, a Norwegian is Swiss person can buy >10 liters). And that's only an example, that crap applies to almost every area.
-for example in Germany many cities are divided into emission-areas (from the lask of a better word). If your car doesn't pass some level of emissions criteria (indicated by colorful sticker on a license plate) you cannot drive into some portions of the city. And that applies to all cars, so if you happen to own a 1990 Mercedes W124, which is completly ok despite having 1M km on the odometer, you cannot access most areas of the cities.
-many substances are controlled, not because of them being drug precursors, but rather being unsafe for people/environment. Try to buy for example acethone, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid or any hydrogen peroxide stronger than pharmacy-grade 3%. Good luck with that. It's very hard unless you represent certified company which has a permit to deal with that kind of stuff. And in most cases such company won;t sell you half a liter of some chemical, because they have to account for every liter/kilogram purchased, used, recycled etc. Quite infuriating.
People often laugh at americans being stupid and needing warning labels on everything (that coffee is hot, don't point that gun in your face, don;t swallow metal parts end the like), but with that aproach you can buy almost anything, which may be unsafe. In case you do something to youself or others - you have been warned.
EU = fail.