Charlie, although I come from the UK I'm not so sure that we do a 'European' style of Judo.
The Judo that has influenced me can be broken down into 2 camps. The first was 'traditional' and quality of technique was emphasised, i.e. retain balance throughout, control, strive for Ippon. Press-ups were never done - "why do you want to push Uke away ?".
The other influence was the 'Olympic' judo. I'd go to National Squad training and instead of learning advanced techniques, we'd all go on a 5-mile run. It was Koka judo - get a knockdown, try to win by getting less penalties than your opponent rather than more positive scores.
Fortunately, the strength of the second influence is waning and the two areas are coming together so that, hopefully, we can have the best of both worlds.
One of the major differences between the 2 forms was 'gripping'. Neil Adams has a book on it and I noticed a quote on the IJF website from the Japanese coach, Tatsuto Mochida, where he attributes some of the success of the Japanese men's team to their adoption of the western style of grip fighting.
Here's the url for the whole story http://www.ijf.org/whatnew/latenews/wn-bb-807.htm I think you'll find it interesting.
Pete Boyes.
"Whoa, careful now. These are dangerous streets for us upper-lower-middle-class types. So avoid eye contact, watch your pocketbook, and suspect everyone." - Homer Simpson.