The reality in Europe is that until recently electricians generally worked in their own countries so the whole issue of different colour codes in different countries never really arrose.
Within any given country the colour codes are normally very uniform and well established.
The only safety issue was pre-1970s when different countries had different colour codes on domestic appliences, hence the European change to brown (L) and blue (N) with yellow and green stripes.(E/G)
The harmonisation of fixed cabling systems is desirable for a number of reasons:
Electricans are more mobile than ever before and need to be able to easily work across boarders.
If there is one European standard for cable and accessories it will reduce costs and increase economies of scale. (The European system is also likely to be adopted by other countries using European based electrical systems (i.e. all the countries on 230V 50hz)
I would also like to see some EU directives governing adaptors. There are far too many very scary UK-Schuko, Schuko-Italian, Schuko-Swiss/Danish adaptors out there that are needlessly dangerous.
The most obvious sollution to me would be to make the 4 main plug types in Europe official European standards; Schuko, BS1363, Italian and Danish ... (Not sure if the Swiss fall into the EN system) Then make the adaptors comply with European standards.
The Italian, Danish and Swiss systems are only used within their countries but Schuko and BS1363 are much more widespread.
In Europe:
BS1363: UK, Republic of Ireland, Malta & Cyprus
Schuko:
Most of the rest.
It would also be interesting to see if there are a large number of shocks/fires caused by faulty/poor quality adaptors. Statistics would be useful!
