3.1
(b) Pilot/Owner maintenance including daily inspection (DI) must be carried out and certified in accordance with EU regulation
2042/2003 as amended. Pilots carrying out maintenance must
hold a valid pilot’s licence (or equivalent)
I'm not sure if you are agreeing with me or not ChrisN!
Regulation 2042/2003 is otherwise known as part M. During the consultation period I was active in getting the then proposed rules changed because as written only licensed pilots would be able to perform pilot/owner maintenance - which would have been disastrous for the UK gliding community who, in the period between Part M coming into force and glider pilots getting EASA SPLs or LAPS(S)s, would have been prohibited from doing such activity. The change was to get the words 'or equivalent' added where it specified that the pilot doing maintenance had to be licensed. The BGA, presumably in consultation with the CAA decided that Bronze is equivalent.
The original EASA proposals also made it a requirement that things like rigging, removing/replacing canopies (think Skylark and Oly), inflating tyres and many other things traditionally done by glider pilots would have needed to be signed off by an engineer every time. The way round this, which was accepted by EASA and put into the current regulations, was to allow the pilot to do anything that is a permitted activity in the specific aircraft's flight manual. The consequence is that a DI that is documented in a specific aircraft's flight manual is not deemed to be maintenance and can be done by a pilot without a licence or equivalent.
Coming to the BGA's position. They want pilots doing DIs to be Bronze holders. This is not an unreasonable position and those of us who are members of BGA clubs are required to abide with this. To claim that this is an EASA legal requirement is, though, incorrect. I believe that the BGA actually know and accept that.
Prior to the BGA stating that DIs must be done by Bronze holders the situation was that solo pilots were, typically, signed off type-by-type by an instructor or inspector to DI club aircraft and that when becoming members of a syndicate their partners would show them how to rig and DI their glider. As far as I know that system was also satisfactory.