Incorrect. The FAA hands out "based on" PPLs and IRs readily. The PPL is a 61.75 one and the IR is a foreign pilot exam.
Europe could do the same but they choose to run various restrictive practices instead.
True, but that is max a PPL with IR, in europe it is quite easy to get some very easy conversion of a US CPL into a JAA one, depending on country. And that is the main issue corrected here. True as well, they went slightly (but only slightly) overboard with the inclusion of the PPL into the regulation (though there seems to be a quite large time window to recertify), but as others i do see it as a tiny step on the way of evening the odds between the very much closed US job market and the very wide open european one.
I have to admit i do not really pity those companies that might have to move their aircraft and crews onto a european registry with that legislation, they flagged out in the first place to circumvent european regulation (and probably taxation).