So basically, there isn't any evidence that particularly more crashes happen in Europe than in North America, right?
Yeah, I don't think the evidence really points to that. There are some airlines that statistically aren't so safe that fall under the European umbrella (such as Aeroflot), but on the whole I'd guess it's reasonably even.
As far as systematic safety issues - it's sometimes tough to prove. For example I look at the 2006 Comair accident in Kentucky, and I don't really know what systematically could have been done to prevent it. The media made a big deal about the construction being done on the taxiways and the nonstandard markings, the outdated charts that didn't reflect the construction, and the tower being understaffed - but at the end of the day you had two pilots that simply made a huge, huge mistake. The media loves to pin disasters on 'the system' because it makes for better news, but sometimes you just have a case of humans screwing up, and especially in aviation, people can get killed as a result.
That said, I'm not trying to dismiss systematic safety issues altogether - Captain Sully made a pretty good point about how the job isn't what it used to be. Pay and quality of life for an airline pilot is not all that great these days, and as a result you're attracting a lower class of pilot to the job. The same thing is happening to Air Traffic Controllers (in the US, at least). Also, with airline profits as thin as they are, everyone is riding a knife edge between being efficient and staying safe. It's definitely an interesting situation.