On a related issue, has there been any progress on the medical front?
For example there is the present distinction between the Initial medical and the Renewal medical. In general terms, the UK and every other Euro CAA has allowed Demonstrated Ability (DA) on the latter but not the former. This is a corruption of the "safety system" because when you go on the BA 747 to Orlando, the two pilots up front have been flying on Renewal medicals for many years, so they have been allowed essentially unlimited uncorrected vision defects, unlimited uncorrected hearing loss, etc. Whereas any "Euro" IR has never been accessible to any initial applicant who fails the JAA audiogram in just one ear (except via a very complicated roundabout route which takes years to do, and may not even be available today) and I believe this remains the case for the FCL008 IR.
In 2008 I spoke face to face with Eric Sivel who said EASA will end this distinction, and will allow DA on initial medicals too - which is more or less what the FAA does.