The March 2011 IAOPA News Leaflet (inside AOPA Pilot) comments on EASA-FCL as follows :
[...] IAOPA's hard work in conjunction with the EBAA and GAMA has apparently paid off with an informal ruling that will delay the final committee approval fro the NPA until the spring of 2011 and push back the effective date from 2012 to 2014. The ultimate resolution to this important issue will be to use pending bilateral aviation safety agreements between EASA and other States to mutually recognize one another's licenses with a minimum of formality.
As this could have been written by Seebohm's minions, I would take IAOPA's comments and newsletters with a grain of salt, as it is indicative that they have either a mole in their publications department or they haven't kept their eye on the ball lately.
I am not involved in it so you will have to blame someone else
You may think you are protected by the anonymity of the PPruNe forum. Enjoy the bliss while it lasts !
"But Brian Simpson said the European Parliament had passed the Basic Regulation with the European-licensing element included and could not now say it didn’t want it."
Indeed, I think Brian and many Europeans with him want a uniform European License. The non-existence of this is actually one of the historical origins of the widespread N-register use (there are of course many others).
What Brian doesn't want is fall-out from a runaway Commission and EASA who abuse this genuine and justified wish for uniformity to settle some scores and to kill off General Aviation. Brian also doesn't want to infringe ICAO agreements. Brian is one of those down to earth MEP's who know what it's like when you're denied fair opportunities (he's from Liverpool and used to teach there) and who will do the right thing when presented with the proper information.
What we would all love to see is a uniform European Licensing system that allows for affordable training at all levels, truly promotes the freedom to travel while reducing unnecessary burdens.
Do you think we use stars and stripes as blankets ? Do you think we like being fingerprinted by the TSA ? No, we want a European General Aviation industry (training, aircraft production and maintenance, oversight) that is competitive on its own merits so that no European Citizen would hesitate to chose the European Route.
And we want the freedom to fly across Europe, visit those beautiful places like Brighton, Cambridge, Ramsgate, York; Kerry, Waterford, Galway; Ostend, Antwerp; Cognac, Reims, Marseille; Ludwigshafen, Konstanz, Augsburg, Hamburg, Peenemunde; etc; and to do that in a WE under safe guidance from ATC on an IFR flight plan.
Instead, we are witnessing a vindictive Executive and Aviation Agency with double agendas, individual conflicts of interest, intransparency, contempt for democratic principles and freeriding; This in turn decreases our productivity, possibly getting behind the curve on important items such as SatNav guidance development, ATC optimisation, environmentally enhancing initiatives etc...
But you don't care because you're just an "interested" bystander, aren't you ?