The industry/CAA WG sent its proposals to the CAA in Jun 2014, hardly 'a period of a year'. The proposals included a reduction in the number of exams from 9 to 6.
AMC1 FCL.215; FCL.235 are purely recommendations; strictly speaking they are not 'EU law'.
I have asked why the number of exams has not been reduced in line with the WG's recommendations; personally I consider retaining 9 to be 'gold-plating', although perhaps only 9 karat.
EASA does not require any specific number of exams; it merely states the subject topics.