It has to be regretted that the Euopean Union with its initiative to improve ATM has made a uniform upper/lower division level as one of its action items, which has been uncritically accepted by too many ATC people who should know better
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The European Union is in this ,as in many other cases, still powerless to override the decisions made by individual states. It was mooted a number of years ago that with the advent of free Skies a re-organised / enlarged "Eurocontrol" would take over the responsibility for all ATC, with the exception of TWR/APP services and that all en-route traffic would fly as directly as possible, subject to constraints placed by sector loading, military traffic etc.. One of the biggest opponents, Belgium.
There the division level was raised from FL195 to FL245. Over the Netherlands, it has been FL300 and FL245 at various times in the last 20 years
The fact that this is accepted "too many ATC people" is not simply a matter of some rolling over and having their stomachs tickled, but a question of them following the decisions made by their political masters.
And I can't believe I'm actually sticking up for ATC management