As far as I know in Austria frequent testing is mandatory too, though I absolutely don't know if this applies to all commercial settings or only certain fields. It's most certainly neglected frequently. The office building I'm sitting in right now (electrical planning office) was built in 1998 and the first check was done 2 weeks ago.
As Wolfgang mentioned in Germany the so-called Berufsgenossenschaft requests the testing. On (especially larger) constructions ites there are also checks I think. This is only confirmed by one story I heard though...
An Italian plumbing company arrived on site with only dangling cords on their tools... not a single plug. They just too matches and stuffed the bare wires into the socket holes... they didn't want to carry around adaptors for their cords working in different countries.
They were forced to get safer tools...
