costly
With the new JAA rules a CPL license (with ATPL theory) will cost you about 80 000 USD here in Sweden.
The increased cost together with the more advanced theorystudies has significantly decreased the amount of new pilots entering the market every year. The leading companies say that the shortage of pilots in this country has already started to give rise to problems.
For example, a major EMS/SAR company here has taken in quite a few pilots with only IR theory lately. So, that's the upside of the costly training.