The UK is very different from continental Europe. Your statement isn't quite valid.

The EU has had the BMD reform in the past where education systems were standardized to a bachelor-master-doctorate three-party system.

To get to a PhD, you need first a bachelor (the name usually varies depending on the country, e.g., it is called a license in France), then a master.

That's the very common pipeline there. Doing a PhD without a master is a rare thing.