Have a look here
PPL Training - afeonline.com, Europe's favourite online Pilot Shop, by It will show you the release dates that you can compare with the books you have already?! The exams are changing from 7 to 9 exams although you can't take the 9 exams yet as EASA haven't released the papers to sit yet I believe? You think they would have sorted this before hand!
As for flying with GPS I don't think it should be mandatory to fly with it to stop infringments, seems stupid, surely better training would be better, although having the technology there and not using it also seems daft.
Does nobody like the feeling of arriving at the destination airfield using just a MAP!?