What do you mean by "panic hiring" ... it's going on with the big 3 arab mega carriers right now ... all of them placed massive massive jet orders and now the planes are arriving and they need bums on seats right the hell now and they're finding out that there aren't actually enough experienced first world pilots interested in making the move at any price. Unfortunately for you guys it's still and always will be a closed market to the fresh European wannabe, insurance companies are pretty much the ones who dictate the minimum experience levels.
The only other kind of "panic hiring" that's gone on has also been dictated by insurance companies ... i.e. Korean Air, after their disastrous air safety decade in the '90s the insurers told them to get a certain percentage of westerners in the driver's seats or they wouldn't insure them - their hand was forced and there was certainly some "panic hiring" at that stage.
I can't see any European airline that meets either of those two categories at the moment so no I would sincerely doubt that any "panic hiring" will be going on and if there is, it will be almost certainly for experienced, type rated commanders.