A couple of things.
A very small point, the UK is in Europe, and AFAICR we have had 3-pin plugs, 3-wire cables, since the late 50's.
My house was rewired in the 80's, and we have Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers (ELCB) on every circuit. So even if I stuck a fork into my toaster while grabbing a copper water pipe, I'd expect it to trip (I am not willing to back this up with evidence :-)
When I have visited continental Europe, I am pretty sure that I've seen the same ELCB technology in use.
I suggest that is even more effective than having an Earth connection; after all, if I touched the correct bit of wire in your toaster with my fork, without touching anything else, the Earth connection via a plug would do me no good. Further, unless the device had a metal case connected to Earth, I don't think I am much more likely to touch both Earth and live than just live alone.
I imagine the cost of rewiring all of the houses in Europe which have two-wire cabling t have three-wire would be very large. However, upgrading the distribution panel with ELCB is pretty simple (a drop in replacement in some cases for an old fashioned fused unit), and could be caused to happen more easily when electricity metres need replacing.
Those 'wings' are grips. In the pictured module, the contacts are mounted in a removable 'faceplate.'
In this case, it's an AUS-compatible faceplate, and those wings are to ease installation & removal of that plate.
More to the (assumed) second intent of your post: Yes, you should be safely able to remove them safely.
Best Answer
There are two ways to answer this.
No. Voltage is a relative measurement, and in any AC power system (American or European), one voltage oscillates above and then below the voltage of the other. Thus, from the perspective of the appliance, which has connections only to the two prongs of the outlet, it's impossible to tell one from the other, because the system is symmetrical.
simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab
However, yes. There are things in the world besides those two prongs. For example, the Earth. In the US, an electrical outlet really looks something like this:
simulate this circuit
The connection between one half of the outlet and Earth is made near the electrical distribution panel:
Now consider, if someone should touch the half of the outlet connected to Earth, probably nothing bad will happen. However, if he should touch the other half of the outlet, he's likely to get shocked by completing the circuit through some accidental 2nd connection with Earth, or something else touching it (which is about everything).
So although flipping the plug around and inserting it backwards will probably be no problem with regard to the electrical operation of the appliance, it may create a safety hazard by exposing the "hot" half of the outlet, the half not connected to Earth, such that someone might touch it and be shocked.
National regulatory and licensing bodies have different requirements for an appliance to be certified as safe. In particular, the home's wiring can be backwards, or users can force plugs in backwards. Thus, things like double insulation have been developed to render appliances safe even in the presence of a fault like backwards home wiring.