Thank you for the clarification, so the "do you have your commercial license" is a procedural question and not a reflection of of the captains perception of his skills as an aviator. This leads me to a couple of follow up questions:
1) I always thought that routes like this one normally drew from a relatively small cadre of pilots with the seniority to bid on that route successfully, further that the crew origination was in Paris so this would be the return leg. I'd assume the captain would be aware of his crews credentials based on prior experience or would "interview" and review credentials for anyone he'd never flown with before flying with them....especially on a flight that called for him to be away from the flight deck at some point.
2) My second assumption is that in the event of any unusual circumstances the senior officer on the flight deck is in command in the captains absence regardless of who is "designated" as the "PF" (given both are in reality just monitoring systems). Once the AP kicked off and the 1st fault display occurred the senior FO had a clear cut responsibility to take control of the aircraft the moment he felt the need to correct the actions of the PF. Had he simply said "my aircraft" more then likely this would be no different then any other similar incident relating to A330/340 issues.
To me this is a clear cut failure in the command and control culture for the airline in question. I am also amazed that the captain did not immediately take his seat back. Regardless of any other circumstances for the aircraft to hit the water with the captain having never taken control of the aircraft speaks volumes about very serious cultural issues (again my opinion).
When you view this incident in the frightening context of its current representation it drives home the reality that we are on the cusp of some significant precipice. For a major "flag" carrier to have flight crew trained to such a low standard that they were incapable of handling what should have been a "minor emergency" is appalling. I can not fathom a company culture that would allow a more seasoned FO who actually knew what to do sitting by while he literally watched an obviously overwhelmed pilot kill not only himself but the souls for which he had responsibility in the captains absence.
While it might be possible to rationalize this accident within the context of a regional airline like Colgan, a "third world" airline like Libya (Afriqiyah) or a national flag carrier where significant cultural issues impede cockpit CRM (Turkish Airlines) how do you do so with a flagship western carrier?
To me it's a very clear wake up call that the obvious benefits and economies of automation have led us to a point of not only diminished returns but significant risk. When even major western carriers have reached a point where 5,000 hr FO's no longer have the fundamental skill set (and cockpit culture) to handle readily foreseeable contingencies.