I have not had much experience with very low time pilots in Europe. But I did fly with one FO who had around 400 hours total time and he was quite sharp. Granted he had a masters degree in aerospace engineering and had worked as an engineer for Airbus for over a decade before moving to the Airbus training department for a few years. So he was definitely not the norm for 400 hour pilots. But overall I have not noticed much difference in the quality of pilots between Europe and the States. Now China...that's a different story.