Why is everyone so surprised? EASA FCL was always going to contain exactly what the bureaucracy wanted it to contain. It was never going to matter one iota what you or I thought about it - we represent nothing more than insignificant irritations that have to be humoured. The whole NPA/CRD process is, so far as EASA is concerned, a necessary, if tedious, formality that will, in the end, be consigned to the dustbin. The same will be true of OPS, ATC and all of the other areas that EASA will take responsibility for. Last I heard, the agency (I won't dignify it with a capital letter) employed over 500 people just one of whom had any professional flight experience. Welcome to the brave new world and thank the Great Green Arkleseizure that I'm almost out of it!