I'm an American and I quite enjoy European rpgs, but I do find them to have a rather step learning curve. Most of them have points where a minmaxer can pass but casual gamers can't.
Dragon Age is the only recent rpg I'd feel safe recommending to a non gamer friend, it does a very good job of figuring out where people are going to have problems and helping them out.
Spell force is one of the more accessible euro rpgs of recent years, though not one of my personal favorites.
Anyone remember Evil Islands?
