Well, the EU should probably do something about these regional card services. Ideally they should be forced to offer processing to all merchants in the EU. Here in Germany, they have EC and girocard, both of which aren't very foreigner-friendly. Expect foreign Visa cards to only work in the more commercial half of shops that take cards - maybe a third of all places you may want to shop.

I doubt Neelie Kroes is listening, but if she is, this is the kind of stuff that needs to go.