Equally, the US hours count towards the EASA licence as well (make sure you are the sole manipulator). Certainly I would always recommend that if you don't need an EASA licence don't bother with it.
You can study for your EASA licences right now - the rules say that you can train while you are studying but you cannot take the skill test until you pass the exams. There are study materials around that allow you to do that - see this thread
http://www.pprune.org/professional-p...nd-studies-14/.
phil