Re: sacrebl.uk!
" Unsure how many .eu sites are actually essential"
I suspect that many might be "essential" under the tradeamar rules that say you can lose a trademark if you are not defending it ... i.r. if you can register mytrademark.eu but don't and someobe else does then they can claim you've relinquished your rights to mytrademark. If UK compananies are legally barred from regisering under .eu then they don't need to be bothered by it.
As for .eu domains ... can't say I've ever encountered one in real lide ... except perhaps leave.eu.