For so many years refuelling was done without the intervention of the pilots, except selecting the fuel quantity to be delivered, but now sudenly all these procedures have to revert to the pilots. Once again I do keep to my idea everybody covers themselves and the ultimate responsable is the pilot, where in this procedure is safety increased to me is unknow but I am sure that safety INFLIGHT is severely impaired by the pilots having to perform another task outside their cockpit duties during turnarounds.
I do not work for a low cost, and worked mostly to charter companies and flag carries and even with these companies it is not unusual to refuel without having a mechanic on station, so it was never a case having less people employed by the airlines.
This recalls me another JAA brilliant idea like the authorisation to perform a walk around, another ridiculous piece of paper because since the dawn of aviation pilots were performing walkarounds without the necessity of an "authorisation".
A pilot, that does not know how to perform a proper walkaround simply should not be allowed to fly as this is a basic procedure and safety issue, not needing a piece of paper to allow him to perform such procedure.