Fuji - I think you are right on both counts i.e. EASA has failed to remove national interests (obviously, because the national CAAs, etc, lobby like hell against stuff which would cause job losses) and they also don't like the USA so a lot of stuff, if it so happens that it would be similar to the way the USA does it, has to be dressed up with different names, small changes, gold plating, etc.
Ellemeet - All this FCL008 IR stuff is for private pilots only. I don't see any effort going on to reduce the 14 CPL/IR exams which are so full of bollox and which are nowadays a charade because the whole FTO sausage machine swats them up using the question bank.