Mark - the way that the CAA choose to interpret JAR-FCL is not the way other member states choose to interpret it. In the UK all initial Instrument Rating Skill Tests are conducted by CAA flight examiners but this is not the case elsewhere - many countries delegate the test to industry and, while I don't know to which state Keygrip is referring, I am more than prepared to believe that he is correct.
This is one of the few things that is unlikely to change, as I understand it, on the inception of EASA and it will always be easier to get an IR in most countries than in the UK. I'm noticing that the airline recruiters are beginning to realise this and I sense an increasing bias in recruitment by UK airlines towards candidates who have passed the IR in the UK. If the quality of the two chaps I have just trained (or, in one case, failed to train) is anything to go by, I can well see why!!