Either to develop an IMC rating (or whatever you wish to call it) which everyone else in the EC can obtain.
or to establish a process by which the IMC rating may continue to be issued and used purely in the UK post-EASA.
I think the options are
Either to develop a more GA-accessible
ICAO IR which everyone in the EC can obtain.
or to establish a process by which the IMC rating may continue to be issued and used purely in the UK post-EASA.
The reason for the "ICAO IR" is that there is zero chance of European acceptance unless one has equal in-flight competence with IR pilots. There is room to play on what constitutes applicable/relevant theory, where the training is done, etc (and FCL008 appears to have done some of that) but there is no room to play on in-flight competence which basically means an identical checkride, plus ICAO minimum training compliance which is no big deal at just 10 hours.
Sub-ICAO, any country can do what it likes but the EU position is that this is not allowed.
Australia has its own "IMC Rating" kind of thing but Australia is not in the EU (very wisely
).