I agree with your comments PP but I think the reality is in the politics and the emotions surrounding these issues in Europe.
Forget aviation and accident stats. Just look at the politics.
In the
USA, the default position is to vest authority in an
individual and let him get on with it. Hence the A&P/IA system, the DER system, the DAR system. Only at the top end (jets) does one have to get into FAR Part 145 Repair Stations. It's a system which works very well, although obviously it does require the govt authority to be able to bust individuals who play up (and the FAA certainly does do that, and they do it in Europe as well, often acting much faster than the CAA).
In
Europe, the default position is to presume all individuals are crooks and fraudsters, and you vest authority in an
organisation. You make the organisation go through various approvals whereby certain steps make it "difficult" for a crook to operate (you force the organisation to appoint separate individuals for separate functions which makes collusion necessary, and since collusion is regarded as antisocial, it is deemed unlikely to happen in Europe) and then you can let the system run with minimal top-level supervisory activity; you mainly set up an office to collect the approval fees. So, we have the European situation where maintenance companies can do what they like (including document forgery) and virtually never get busted. This extends to stuff like ISO9000 which is now a complete farce and a purely marketing tool (albeit one that impresses only complete mugs, and ISO 9000 quality managers employed by the company doing the purchasing).
So, we will never have Europe accepting the FAA IR 6/6 rolling currency. It's obvious that all FAA licensed pilots are forging their licenses, after all
US AOPA is excellent and superbly organised. If they can apply some of their resources to the European situation, they can achieve a great deal. I once watched an ageing Phil Boyer totally demolish a bunch of Eurocontrol officials at a presentation, and they slinked out as fast as they could before somebody could ask them questions.
An air law exam is a fairly standard thing for license conversions/validations, notwithstanding the fact that the present one in Europe is stuffed to the brim with complete bollox like
this and addresses virtually nothing to do with actually flying over here.