some of the European militaries are welfare schemes where the troops do make work, and are probably less "dangerous" than a street gang).
All of the "important" Euro countries have very competent, modern militaries that are man for man, on par with the US. Yes, even the best rely too much on the US for force projection, but I wouldn't want to fight any majorish war without the help of the UK and Germany.
The UK has a very competent military. Germany?
No idea. I know that in the Balkan conflict there was some sort of caveat disallowing the presence of German, Italian or Hungarian troops outside their own borders. I seem to remember that as a reason for them not participating on the ground. (Well, Hungary wasn't yet part of NATO anyway.) Italy did some flight mission work but I think Germany stayed out entirely. At least until combat was clearly over.
I could be wrong, but I think now there are even some non NATO forces on the ground there...Ireland, to be specific.
Ireland has been in KFOR since 1999.
Most of the other European neutrals are also there (Sweden, Finland, Austria, Switzerland).