I agree re the PPL conversion but this is of little applicability since few people fly in the EU on an FAA
PPL alone.
Most FAA paper usage is in the IR context. For this, EASA appears to offer no conversion route.
IMHO, therefore, it appears obvious that the real
practical issue in all this is whether we will have visibility of what EASA will
actually do, before the present ICAO IR to JAA IR 15-hr conversion route disappears.
Myself, I cannot believe EASA will pull this off, not least due to the difficulty (described above) of defining pilot residence. Obviously I am EU resident, but an awful lot of pilots move about, and there will be loads of ambiguous cases. Even tax residence is tricky (ask any clever accountant) and there exists no framework for enforcing this kind of stuff within the present international aviation system.
It is a bit like the 2005 DfT proposal to kick out N-regs after 90 days' parking. Nobody with a brain thought they will pull it off, but equally nobody could be 100% sure they won't pass some law...
Justiciar - anytime
I have just had a hard day flying an N-reg TBM850 so I can tell ya about it