I'm still hoping for something similar where I currently live, here in Switzerland (not in the EU). Payments generally arrive the next business day but that isn't good enough for most in-person transactions.
The reason why banks are charging now for simple accounts, is that since we have negative interest rates (the lowest in the world), its actually damn difficult for banks to make a profit now with normal accounts since the traditional business model of the difference in interest rates is now actually reversed (the target rate is negative, yet on my account I have 0%...).
There do at least seem to be a few free (with no minimum balance) app-based checking/private accounts.