Indeed; limited airport operating hours is a major issue which cripples the utility value of GA in Europe, and for no good safety reason. It is just anally retarded regulation.
Even pilot controlled lights are "banned" by the CAA, though I gather that the bloke who kept that policy going (on the basis of some word play with what an aeronautical radio frequency may be used for) is no longer around, so maybe a strong push for PCL might yield a result. A number of small private airfields have PCL, discreetly, and I would certainly do that if I had one. I'd use SMS to operate the lights.