It is not something that suddenly occurred to Patrick Gandil.
True, but it is Gandil who drove the recent initiative (as per your reference link), inspired by
- quite a few French GA pilots petitioning it (both JAA and FAA rated)
- the French GA aircraft industry not overly happy with the EASA proposal (Gee, would I buy this TBM850 if there is a fair chance I won't be allowed to fly it ?)
- the French flight instructors frustrated by the large number of French FAA PPL IR graduates relative to the French DGAC PPL IR graduates per year (Somebody told me the ratio is above 50:1)
And it would be sought by GA in almost every European Country.