I think it is long past the date when the EU should have started to apply reciprocally onerous standards to the US citizens traveling to Europe. Unless the US travelers start raising fuss at home about their treatment abroad, this BS will continue.

I am pretty sure that this nonsense would change very fast the moment CEOs of big US companies get a proper interrogation on arrival at Heathrow or Frankfurt and/or get denied entry for arbitrary and undisclosed reasons (as is common in the US).

(before someone jumps on me that the article is about visas and not ESTA applying to EU countries - well, the ESTA questionnaire is pretty much identical to the visa one, including the "have you been a member of a terrorist organization?" questions. Just you normally don't need to go to an embassy interview and it can be handled online as long as you don't get flagged for some reason).