Expanding into the EU is a minefield, especially when your site starts flagging...

https://blogfreely.net/murciajpvo/are-subdomains-bad-for-international-seo-compared-to-subfolders

Expanding into the EU is a minefield, especially when your site starts flagging conflicting hreflang tags across thirty regional subfolders. I’ve seen too many migrations tank traffic overnight because of messy cross-border signals