@toggleswitch2
Actually, the French and Danish recessed socket outlets are deep enough to prevent any contact with live pins too.
The French outlets are as deeply recessed as Schuko. There is absolutely no possibility of coming into contact with the live pins with that system.
I think the reason it looks more shallow is a bit of an optical illusion.
French socket outlets do not have groves or clips like CEE 7/4 (Schuko). They're smoothly round and have a very serious grounding pin in the recess, which is similar to a the prongs you'd find on a Schuko plug. This provides the grounding contact, and it also helps guide / hold the plug in place.
I think the groves on the schuko outlets make them look deeper.
The Danish system is only accidentally compatible with CEE 7/7. It may have completely different specifications for the way it makes contact with the plug's pins i.e. it probably only makes contact at the tips of the pins, to ensure the live pins are not exposed, thus allowing for a shallower recess.
The UK/Ireland system - BS1363 uses sheathed pins to prevent contact with live pins. The switch is largely just for convenience. In fact, many socket outlets don't have switches, they are not required by the regulations, more just 'tradition'. They're handy in areas like kitchens where you might want to disconnect kettles, toasters etc and not have plugs dangling around your worktops! Or, for switching off your office equipment at night without having to reach down and unplug things.
From a safety perspective, however, they really have no value.
With regard to a universal standard plug, there was a proposed pan-European standard which became IEC 60906-1 (an international standard) for 230V, single phase plugs. However, nobody other than Brazil, has ever adopted it.
It's highly unlikely that it will ever be used in Europe as the expense of changing would not be warranted and CEE 7/7 is used by the vast majority of countries and far beyond the EU too i.e. the entire European continent pretty much uses them which is a total population of over 700 million people! They're also widespread in Asia, Africa and elsewhere.
Denmark and Italy seem to be adopting it now too
So really, for the sake of harmonising the UK, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta (maybe about 65 million people at most in total) with the rest of the EU, it would be serious over-kill.
It would be a bit like changing the US/Canadian NEMA 15 plugs across all of North America to convenience a couple of odd-ball US states or Canadian provinces that had standardized on something else i.e. it'd be completely crazy!
Incidentally, the French System CEE 7/5 is polarised. The plugs can only be inserted one way due to the grounding pin arrangement.
Ungrounded 16A plugs, such as that described in Post# 397837 also only fit in one direction in those sockets.
From what I gather, the French system is being adopted by Denmark, rather than German-style Schuko because it's fully polarised / polarizable.
In reality, pretty much all European countries require RCD (GFCI) protection on all outlet circuits anyway and appliances are designed to operate safely in either polarity here (including light fittings) so it's really a moot point these days.
Wiki article about IEC 60906
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60906-1
