There is a fundamental difference between intersections with traffic lights in Europe vs North-America, which I think is leading to confusion in this conversation.
In North-America traffic lights are positioned on the far-side of intersections and point into the intersection. In America all traffic light activity is typically visible to all traffic participants (including pedestrians) at an intersection at all times, so "don't block the box" laws make sense.
In Europe traffic lights are typically** positioned on the near side of intersections and point away from the intersection in their respective directions.
This is an important difference.
If a driver in Europe (right hand drive such as here in Germany) is waiting to turn left at a red light s/he will wait until the light turns green then (slowly) pull into the intersection and wait until oncoming traffic has cleared (or until it is safe) before turning left. It is important to understand that at the point a driver *enters* an intersection that *no* traffic light activity any longer visible to the driver, so s/he WILL eventually have the opportunity (and obligation so as not to block cross-traffic) to turn left, at the latest once the oncoming traffic is presented with a red light. Cars behind that driver are already presented with a red light and may not pass through it in order to enter the intersection.
This differences can be quite interesting, as well as dangerous to the uninformed. For example European tourists visiting the United States are highly likely to make the dangerous mistake of driving right up to a traffic light only to then realize that they are sitting in the middle the intersection. Another mistake that Europeans might make when first driving in America is to come to a screeching halt in the middle an intersection while turning left because they are not used being "presented" with a red light without having to stop.
Americans drivers first visiting Europe may have a tenancy to stop much further back from an intersection at a red light than is necessary, and American pedestrians are sometimes confused at first by the lack of visible traffic lights for cars, which I think might be one reason why Europeans (a least here in Germany) pay such close attention to crosswalk signals. As a pedestrian in Europe only crosswalk signal activity is visible whereas in America pedestrians have a tendency to pay more attention to what the car traffic lights are doing so as to know when it is safe to cross.
**Americans driving in right-handed Europe (not Ireland/UK) should also take care when turning right (This happened to me, but I was lucky enough to get out of a ticket.) that they are not turning into a cross-walk where a red light may be positioned pointing to the left *into* the the intersection. Yep, turning to the right into a traffic light clearly intended for the cross-traffic is considered driving through a red light!
To put it simply, in Europe knowledge of traffic light activity at an intersection is on a need-to-know basis only, whereas in America it's public knowledge.