Signatures very much still exist in the EU; if the card you put into the reader only supports SEPA Debit and no immediate transfers, the shop has to do a manual SEPA Debit in the evening using your signature as authorization. A few banks refuse to upgrade to anything newer.

Here (Germany) it was recently announced that banks would raise the limit up to which no validation is needed for (maybe just contactless?) payments. And indeed since then I haven't had to confirm a transaction, which is why I asked.

It's an option. For example, Walmart doesn't require a signature on any transactions.