Re regulation for European operators (AOC holders) "your pilots have to have JAR/EASA licenses" - It's been like that for quite a while , one can get validation of his/her FAA license from local NAA (only once) for a period of 12 month, if i remember properly. after you have to get your JAR/EASA license.
Yes; most countries, including some EU ones, would validate an ICAO CPL/IR or ATPL to their local pilot papes, if you have a relationship with a commercial operator on their registry. This is normal.
It is private (e.g. FAA Part 91) ops which this is aimed at.
Like I said earlier, while this has been cooking for a few years (and yes the bizjet community has had its head buried in the sand... witness many threads here) what has caught everybody out is that most EU countries have not applied for the 2 year derogation.
It seems clear that EASA used the 2 year derogation, with their usual vague promise of a bilateral FCL treaty with the USA, as the under-the-table carrots to get enough MEP support for the crucial vote some months ago.
But EASA left the derogation on a per-country optional basis. Perhaps this was a clever ruse, knowing that most of the national CAAs have nobody there with the will to live long enough to read the EASA FCL tomes, let alone understand them. Or perhaps everybody underestimated the apathy at all levels around Europe, towards the EU and the crap coming out of Brussels.