this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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They are correct though. In the US, it doesn't matter where you go, every state uses the same plug.
In Europe, different countries use different plugs, even though they are all in Europe.
Ireland plug:
France plug:
Switzerland plug:
Italian plugs:
Congratulations, you're just as dumb as the person in the post.
You should travel, see the world, open your mind. You'd find that traveling the EU is just like traveling the US, no borders, no checks, even my cell plan moves, all the same. It's even called the European "Union", you know, like how the States are a Union (pst, it's in the name, the UNITED states). So yeah, it would be the correct comparison.
Maybe you should travel and then you'd know that Schuko works in most of Europe. Also if open borders are your argument you're talking about Schengen, not the EU, which kinda highlights how ridiculous of an argument it is in the first place.
If the lack of compatibility was actually real then it'd be something that is less convenient when travelling the EU than it would be when travelling the US. Still not something the US does better, the EU isn't a country, the question said "Europe" anyway, and the US isn't a continent either.
Except they are not the same. One is and has been a federal state, with the majority of it's constituent states not having ever been independent/sovereign states. Almost all have been part of it since electricity at home became a thing.
The other is a confederation of independent (for example, they can leave the union) states, all of which have existed as non EU members. They have also been either independent of part of different countries for centuries. They 've been electrified way before joining the EU.
However with the relatively low lifecycle of electrical appliances almost all plugs and devices are compatible, either being 'true' shuko or fitting in them. The exception being Ireland and the UK in the past.
States aren't countries. The US isn't a continent. If you go to a different state within a European country, it won't have a different plug either.
You should travel, see the world, open your mind. You'd find that traveling the EU is just like traveling the US, no borders, no checks, even my cell plan moves, all the same. It's even called the European "Union", you know, like how the States are a Union (pst, it's in the name, the UNITED states). So yeah, it would be the correct comparison.
You mean like in Italy, that is even shown in the picture to the comment your replying to?
You're being awfully condescending for someone making such an incredibly weak defence. By your logic if the EU had stricter borders, the criticism of plug sockets would no longer be valid.
I've traveled to Italy many times, vacationing. I live in a country where schuko is dominant and I've never had to use an adapter. These are all old legacy plugs, I bet you can still buy them to replace existing plugs, I don't know, but I've stayed in hotels and rented rooms (staying with people basically) and I haven't even put any thought into it.
Only Ireland and Switzerland doesn’t accept Type-F aka Schuko which is the de facto EU standard. And the Swiss socket does accept Type-C, which is the two prong plug that fits everywhere in the EU except Ireland. And in Italy all hotels and homes have sockets that accept Type-L and Type-C/F
Also they are not correct, since they are implying that everyone in those countries uses adapters.
Can't your union standardize this? Like, this feels like exactly what the EU is for, facilitating unified standards to increase trade and improve quality of life across Europe.
Oh, and please don't copy us north Americans. Yeah the US, Canada, and Mexico (and japan for some insane reason though you still need an adapter because of the frequency if you're in the half where it's different) share an outlet type. But seriously, our polarized grounded plugs are fine enough but we have a lot of type A and yall can do better than that.
The EU actually did regulate the voltage and standardized the acceptable tolerances for appliances, which is the difficult part. In the olden days, your French 220V appliance wasn't necessarily guaranteed not to burn out if you put a British 240V through it.
That makes sense and is awesome. Since you went through that effort it's weird you have different plugs
I suspect that the cost of refitting every single house, office and appliance in several countries would be many orders of magnitude higher than the cost of everyone just buying their own travel adapter. It's not like they're that big a problem. Most hotels will lend you them for free, or have universal sockets.
We have a standard it’s called Type-F aka Schuko. It’s cross compatible with the French plug and socket. Though a Danish three prong plug doesn't fit in a Schuko socket but a Schuko plug does fit in a Danish socket. And in Italy it’s standard to install sockets that accept both Schuko and Type-L. Also type-C plugs aka Europlug (two prong, no grounding) are accepted in every European country except Ireland and UK.