Before I get painted as anti-european, I must say that the airworthiness people I have dealt with were always reasonable and quite practical, as well as being very good engineers. The CAA crew who do helicopter cert are second to none in the world, IMHO, and the French and Germans I have flown with are also top notch, with strong practical sense. I think most of my concern is with CAA and EASA Operational types, and the pilot certification rules/procedures. It seems to me a very good engineering staff at the civil agencies are not backed up by the same calibre of operational/standards talent -note the British spelling!! ;-)