Maybe if they want to change the laws anyway, this is what they should fix instead. In particular, there should be punitive damages for everything illegal that are high enough that it's almost never profitable to break the law even if you get away with it a significant proportion of the time.
Adding some obscure consumer protection rule is a much less controversial change to the law.
The traditional German legal doctrine sees the enforcement of fair business practices rather in the hands of the authorities than in those of consumers. Of course, there is little evidence of this to work in this or similar contexts.
There ARE punitive damages the airline has to pay you if they cancel or delay your flight. It's EU law. See the sibling comment.
For instance if they cancel or delay a flight over 1500 km in the EU you're entitled to 400 Euro compensation on top of cost of ticket and other expenses you had due to it.
Does that include payment for time spent seeking a verdict?
And do you have evidence that the US style works? Or was that just a throwaway "of course the state doesn't work!" comment without justification?