Whether chip and sig is accepted in places around europe will probably depend on the software they have, the merchant's agreement with their acquirer, whether it's an unattended terminal and a bunch of other stuff.
Surprised to hear it's next to useless, but not really surprising that it's less useful.
I was up in Canada a few months ago, where EMV cards are ubiquitous. C&S is accepted everywhere, but merchants routinely get confused by the second receipt printing out. I've heard it's the same in Europe.
Surprised to hear it's next to useless, but not really surprising that it's less useful.