No. Apple claims they cannot implement this due to security concerns. Yet at the same time, they assure EU users that the Apple platform is of course secure. So which one is it?
By limiting this change to the EU, Apple displays that they clearly are able to add support for multiple browser engines without compromising security if forced to, so the only reason left is their unwillingness to commit to their users freedom of choice.
Is that surprising in any way?
They've been asked to not reject third party browser engines in the EU. Check.
Google has plenty of developers in the EU so I'm not even sure what people want exactly.