BG I apologise for casting aspertions on your post. I misinterpreted your comments as assuming the pilots would be the only ones affected by these proposals, and so there was a measure of self interest in our concern.
This is true, in as much as these proposals will affect EVERYONE who works on board an aircraft in the WHOLE EU.
The previous protections to our rosters ('scheme' in BA parlance) will be completely destroyed. The CAP371 definition of what is 'safe', 'fatiguing', 'early start' and a whole host of existing protections will be replaced by new definitions, or no definition at all, created primarily at the behest of the airlines. Why? Because in the creation of these proposals the airlines had the ear of the legislators, and inserted many proposals that suited their own interests at the cost of their employees.
The idea behind these proposals is to level the playing field across europe, which is laudable enough. But the EASA are seeing this in more political than safety terms, which is usual for a european institution. They see the UK, with the gold standard CAP371, and they see, say, Italy, with a rag tag of regulations, and see the compromise as being somewhere in the middle.
The point that pilots organisations are making is that, where safety is concerned, this approach is not acceptable. The fatigue regulations have been paid for, quite literally, in blood. In the USA there is a recognition by the FAA that fatigue is an area needing greater regulation, after the Colgan Air crash. In Europe they want us to go the other way.
So this is a very, very big issue for all of us. It completely overshadows the petty squabbles currently underway, and could lead to a less safe and more stressful life for all of us.