Most (all?) European VFR Charts do not give MEF, but rather give an already calculated MSA for each grid.
I just went throught the pile of old charts I have here. The Jeppesen VFR+GPS charts give an Minimum Grid Area Altitude like I said below, and do so consistently across all European charts. I also have an old Dutch "ICAO" chart here (2009; issued by the LVNL) which doesn't give any grid numbers whatsoever. From 2010 onwards the Dutch "ICAO" charts were issued by the German DFS, and these show MEF figures. But these MEF figures seem to use 328' (100m) to account for unknown obstacles, then add a further 30', and then round up. Or they add 60' to a known obstacle, then round up.
In the Netherlands we've got a new printer, once again, for the "ICAO" charts. I haven't seen their charts yet.
Some IFR charts give a Minimum Sector Altitude which, confusingly, also is abbreviated
MSA (but this will always be at, or above, the Minimum Safety Altitude.
I've also heard the term "Minimum Vectoring Altitude" in this context. I guess both these numbers also need to take into account radar/radio performance, standard climb and descent gradients and so forth. So there may well be a reason why they're higher than the MSA.
AFAIK the only time an IFR flight is below the MSA, will be on departure and approach, and of course these departures and approaches are carefully surveyed individually for terrain and obstacles.