Unfortunately the euro attitude towards hobbies translates into their attitude towards everything: euros just don't have any drive to excel, to stand out, to be the game-changer. We Americans instead have it ingrained from childhood: strive to be the best, if you fail it's ok but you've got to try. That's why America innovates and why Americans abroad are looked at in a weird (and I'd say not too pleasant) way. Wherever I have worked (and that's a lot of Western Europe) people would stare at me with that "he thinks he knows our job better than us" at first and "oh no he's going to change everything we do" later. Nevermind their production levels and their work environment would end up improved.
Europeans do not like change, it's as simple as that: politicians do not like it and ordinary people do not like it. The few real innovators are marginalized if not ostracized, so they leave and then the press laments the "brain drain". I feel sorry for Switzerland because it has very advanced technical schools, the ETHZ and EPFL are about on par with MIT on many levels and in some they're actually forward, but the researchers formed there have to leave because they're expected to work as bankers (and the financial sector in Switzerland is about to die a very nasty death). It could be a technological powerhouse like Israel - and those guys love to make waves. The mindset is simply not there.