I grew up in Eastern Europe and moved to Western Europe in my early 20s and the difference is that in the East, STEM was very popular for kids in high school and university as it offered access to engineering careers which were the most lucrative considering how poor the economy was in the 90s, helping kids of lower class background move upwards(just like in the US) and it would also open doors later in life to emigrate to the West.

Now in Western Europe, due to socialism and high standard of living, kids aren't that poor and tech salaries are not that much higher than any other desk job so they have no interest to study STEM as it's seen as stressful career path for boring lonely nerds and instead prefer to focus on social sciences, being wantrepreneurs or Instagram influencers.