Of course, the European regulatory authorities are all about collecting fees and building empires, not necessarily flight 'safety' as such
Couldn't agree more...
Every six months I have to cough up around 400 Euro in order to get my feckin' license PRINTED! Yes, printed. Receive the paperwork, push the print button and mail it. That's all they do.
And because of my current contract, I'm deducted 5 Euro
pr block hr for all training/checkrides. And that equates to around 4500 Euro per annum!
Sorry for getting abit off topic.