Browntail
I'm not argueing that FedUP already operate a large N-reg'd fleet on intra-European routes. What I and others are saying is that practice will not be allowed to continue indefinatly. I suppose this is where we disagree, and whilst I appreciate you not having any problems with us Euros operating domestically in the US, I somehow feel that your House on the Hill will have a slightly different opinion.
As you probably know, FedEx and UPS are taking turns hauling DHL before the courts, disputing their ownership and their right to operate domestically in the US, even if it is with FAA crews and N-regs. If you appreciate that situation, try to reverse it and you might understand how us Euros feel about FedEx and UPS operating intra-EU, even if they were to place their metal on a EU register. To add injury to insult, they're bloody doing it at present on N-regs.
So, either the rules apply equally to both, or they don't. Simple as that, and that is what the EU will let US carriers know in the (hopefully) not too distant future. Please also bear in mind that the days where the US negotiated traffic rights with each individual EU country is also fast becoming a thing of the past. If it wasn't for that 'little' detail knows as London Heathrow it would already be the case that all negotiations would be between the US and the EU. In other words, the US will no longer be able to play one country against the other.