You will always have a signal strength even if you point the dish to the moon :-) Signal quality is, as you noticed, the one that counts. Well 26E is Arab sat which is quite a weak bird in your area but you might get a couple of transponders though even if the footprint is not in your area and 85 cm dish is not so big. But I think some folks in the UK reported to recieve Arab sat on 85cm if I'm not mistaken.
Several things could be the problem and you should check. Is your system setup perfectly which will have to be the case for 26E. You will not notice this on strong birds but the weak ones will punish you if it is not 100%. What transponder did you use on 26E ? Some are weaker as the others so that could be a problem in your case. Try several.
Same with 16E. What transponder are you looking at ? Some transponders on a sat do not have a footprint to Europe. I do not think this is the case for 16E, have to look up first, but make sure you have a proper transponder and the frequency is correct. Often receiver settings are old and not up to date.
Regards
Claasi