It would require the same theoretical knowledge requirements as the PPL / IR
I don't think that is at all the case, Beagle. It may be worth reviewing the proposal, as published in e.g. Flight Training News some months ago.
I am in two minds about this thing.
On the basis that an extra privilege is always a good thing, this would be a fantastic thing for European private pilots.
The catch for
UK pilots is that one could not fly approaches with it, which represents a significant loss of privileges. The other catch is that while UK's "liberal" VFR departure arrangements (anything above OVC002 is OK) VFR departures are not possible from Class D airports in lower than about OVC012-015.
IMHO there needs to be a basic IAP say an ILS... tricky.