Re: Words fail me.
> when filling out car insurance details it asked for the date I passed the test, and rejected it because it is < 18 years after my DOB.
That's a problem with your insurance company policies (or more likely, their misspecced software). Nothing to do with the EU or local laws, etc. I presume you would still have been able to get insurance, after speaking to some actual human (or Frenchman) able to override the shoddy software.