I have been looking at specs in EC 7 and EC 2 when referring to piles. EC 7 seems not to give any indication on minimum reinforcement.
EC 2, that I have checked in its EN 1992-1-1:2004 (E) release, addresses the minimum reinforcement in sections 7.3 when dealing with crack control (that can be dealt with in calculated or simplified ways) and as minimums to lay on specific kinds of structural members in 9.2, say, beams, slabs and columns. When not meeting the minimum for the type, the structural part is to be dealt with as per section 12, that deals with unreinforced concrete.
Then, for columns, (that we muse may be referred to when dealing with piles, since can have both flexure and compression/tension) the minimum and maximum reinforcement ratios are to be set per EC 2 in the national annexes to EC 2. In Spain that means that now the minimum geometrical ratios are to be checked by the code EHE 2008, that for columns, either in 400 or 500 MPa Fy reinforcing steels are set at 0.4%.
In short, there is a void in setting specific minimum reinforcement ratios in Eurocode for piles (since we are to refer to columns to find such); other thing is that the requirements of crack control need to be met, and really this could be the guide to decide if some steel is required as a minimum. By formula (7.1) of section 7.3.2 Minimum reinforcement areas in EC 2, since fct,eff is the mean value of the tensile strength of the concrete effective at the time when the cracks may first be expected to occur, and, by definition, this is a material property value, a short sighted or strict view on the matter is that by such formula some tensile reinforcement is always required to restrain crack formation, generically. This may not be the case if cracks are not "expected to occur" by the excess of significant strength respect characteristical solicitations per analysis. In my view this second option may be rationally argued, and so, the practice of not reinforcing some parts of piles may be countinued and still be compliant with Eurocodes.
Other thing is what the designer has as good practice, or what other codes may recommend. I can say that reinforcing only the 6 upper meters of piles has been common in Spain since the apparition of diverse sets of NTE codes (Normas Tecnológicas de la Edificación) dealing with different kinds of piles in the seventies; I can't say if such was the case before. Of course this practice should not be thought generally applicable to big size piles either in buildings or public infrastructures, or anywhere analysis demands reinforcement.