skyship
The Integrated CPL/IR route from the ATO to TRTO then A320 is currently used as a source of F/O's for BA. It's called the Future Pilot Programme and although graduates of the scheme are, I suppose 'new' as you put it, this form of mentored (formerly sponsored) scheme and it's predecessors are definitely not; such programmes have existed in Europe since the mid-60's.
Your analogy between an FAA and EASA ATP(L) is worth commenting on - the 500 hours cross country time for the FAA minimums is likely to have been conducted in a C152 or PA28 flying as a CFI around Florida or Arizona VFR, whereas the 500 hours multi-crew experience for an EASA licence is just that - 500 hours in a multi-crew, multi-engine transport category aircraft, so I agree with you partly but in that sense, they are not really alike other than they both require 1500 hours minimum for issue. My suspicion is that this is something that is taken into consideration at the recruitment stage.
What should be thought about quite carefully is the fact that ab-initio training standards seem to have changed quite considerably in recent years and that courses conducted for the issue of many EASA licences are largely conducted in the U.S.A., relatively quickly and by the same instructors mentioned above. Instructors training cadets for certification that they do not themselves hold. The progression from light piston to T/P and then the inevitable heavy Boeing or Airbus is greater, in my opinion, than many might think based on their own experience of twenty or thirty years ago.