It seems to me that in the UK, and perhaps in other countries, the water is less deep. Here in BE, one would need to take a flight test with an ultralight examinator, but no theoretical exams would be required, I think, given a PPL or higher. And there wouldn't be a requirement for training a certain number of hours, either, actually we don't even have that for pilots going for the ultralight as their first license. There have been stories of chaps passing the practical test after only a handful of hours of ultralight flying, but they did have a lot of experience, perhaps in gliders or even in R/C flying.
It is a bit of a shame that ultralights can't be regulated Europe-wide, yes. But that is another discussion.