Re: Treatment of IFR flight plans (UK, outside Class A)
In what sense is Austrocontrol handling UK VFR flights, if it deals with their FPLs in the way you describe? It is merely shifting the problem to the Aerodrome of Departure, by the sound of things.
Its handling of IFR flights outside controlled airspace is similarly out of keeping with normal practice in the UK - as described above. The implication is that any IFR flightplan you file outside controlled airspace in the UK will still have to go needlessly through the IFPU Flightplan checker. In this case, the "fault" is clearly the UK's for having an approach to IFR flight that is out of keeping with much of the rest of the planet.