a 28yr old with 600TT and 100 A320SIC...has no business being in the cockpit of the germanwings 320...when I got to his position at a US airline I had well over 10,000 hours and pushing 40+. Heard ryanair had a 18yr old f/o...ladies and gentlemen we need mature, experienced, stable people flying this type of aircraft PERIOD.
The pool of pilots with such vast pre-airline experience simply does not exist in Europe. In the US you have a very active GA sector to get pilots from even at a time when the first Vietnam-era pilots are starting to retire. For that reason, in Europe we've mostly had to rely on pilot selection by raw aptitude, especially in the last 10-15 years or so, rather than the ability to recruit seasoned experts for their first airline positions. It's just how things are.