I know that we all love EASA bashing, but they are excluded from EASA (for whatever reason) so the rules are exactly as they were pre-EASA, and exactly as they'd be for a CofA aeroplane from a non-EASA aeroplane such as the USA.
So, I really don't think that you can blame EASA for this one.
There's so much we can blame EASA for, you can probably let them off occasionally.
G