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As long as there‘s no more than one double socket you don’t need an FCU.

A quick web search indicates that this model is produced for the Republic of Ireland. Hager has product lines for almost every European country.

I was trained using choc blocks and used them all the time but eventually came to prefer Wagos and push-in terminals on sockets. I‘ve seen too many failed choc blocks, including one or two I‘d installed myself. I know that choc blocks are quite common in the UK but less so in junction boxes...

Most likely a breach of contract rather than any law.

Do you know the model of inverter? It sounds like the inverter doesn’t produce a true sine wave and that causes the ballast electronics to oscillate. That might lead to overheating so not ideal.

I‘ve done quite a bit of electrical work in central Europe and have seen plenty of melted choc blocks and screw terminals but very few damaged spring connectors or terminals. One socket had two conductors in a terminal designed for one and on top of that it was a particularly poorly built...

In Germany Wago-style terminals became common on light switches in the 1970s and replaced screw terminals on sockets pretty much immediately as soon as the VDE allowed them in 1995. Wago 273/2273 connectors have been commonly used for at least as long. I‘d consider that decent long-term experience.

What about the screw at around 1 o‘clock? Could that be an earth screw? Either way you‘d need to check for earth continuity.

Some Schuko and French plugs have the earth terminal closer to the strain relief, otherwise you‘re meant to leave the earth longer than L and N for that exact reason.

Is it a bayonet or Edison socket? Edison ones love to do that when the centre contact gets slightly bent.

There’s a huge resistor right next to the brown spot, so that might be normal heat dissipation.

For an off-grid system you need a fairly substantially oversized panel array and battery, which makes the whole setup a lot more expensive. Other than that you can certainly have a setup like that. You could even have two inverters and an automatic transfer switch for a dedicated circuit that...

Most balcony kits only have grid-tie inverters and don’t come with batteries I think, the ones with batteries are more expensive.

Yes, replacing that bit of cable with 4 mm2 should do. I‘d probably put the kitchen sockets onto a 20 A MCB, then the 2.5 mm2 is fine and you get more power than with an FCU.

Socket: https://www.confort-electrique.fr/prise-standard-italienne-2pt-1016a-legrand-mosaic-p-7601.html Grid frame: https://www.confort-electrique.fr/support-vis-etroit-poste-module-p-7818.html Cover...

To make matters even more confusing, there’s three near-identical plugs with very different electrical ratings. The Euro plug is rated 2.5 A, the French version 6 A and the Italian even 10 A. That’s why you get the odd hairdryer with a plug like that, usually the Italian variety. I just...

Probably the smallest option would be a Legrand Mosaic 1 module back box. Quite expensive though.

A socket tester, an extension lead and a multimeter in Ohm mode go a long way though. Use the socket tester to confirm a socket close to the light is earthed, turn off the electrics and measure between the earth of the extension lead and the earth you want to check.

Also probably more trustworthy than a used MCB in unknown condition. Dried grease can get quite tough.

They made it safe alright. If the power can’t be turned on the circuit is perfectly safe. Just not particularly useful