ABC company is the operator of an M registered GLEX. ABC company has its principle place of business in Canada, but bases its GLEX at Linate in Italy for most of the year. The GLEX is crewed by Italian pilots who live in Milan, and they only have American licences which are validated by the Isle of Man. Are you suggesting that they are flying illegally, and if so please explain your logic.
Me I cannot care less..And I agree for the term operator place of residence; and if you just blank read the Annex VI of AIROPS 965/2012; you can live happy ever after. But, there is a but. And this is where **** hit the fan.
If your GLEX spends more than 185 days per year or one year with three years on the italian soil, it will have to be imported in the EU.The place you imported your GLEX in can be considered as place of operation ( but this is in the last resort, ask people whom import their plane in Denmark years ago) Your IOM company (even though not EASA but ICAO if i am not wrong) set for the purpose of owning an asset outside Canada will be considered the operator. An aircraft, you like it or not has a base, you will find this information generally on the insurance contract. This base can be considered as the place of normal operations. Your crew base ( where they are resting or domiciled normally and are taking their duty from) can be considered as a base of operation ( ask RYR).
Your case is a bit short-cut and not thorough enough for me to give a definitive answer, and i charge 1000€ per day for auditing these things.
I can speak only from the cases i have, customers that are coming to me having been bitten by the system . Two recent examples:
CJ1 ( N registered, plane in Cannes, Operator/Owner in Belgium) Part.NCC being made in France in AMS having accepted the PRNAV approach and not having the proper SPA was fined "on spot" for 2500€, the owner came to me with the "invoice " in hand.
Falcon T7 registered,(French Crew, T7 validation, operator in San-Marino based in France Part.NCC french based) being Ramped checked in Romania, aircraft impounded for 24 hours waiting for a Fax to confirm that the EFB usage was operating under the proper LOA .
I have a lot of these, and honestly , i'am just fixing things. I do not want to be right or wrong , i just tell you that this is what is happening NOW. The audits are set to happen from february ( this is at the place of business, and i have already dates set from various countries agencies to operator, to check the archives, the manual, the crew records etc...)
So, this is how it is, and one more i am not judging if it is ok or not ok.
To come back to your GLEX, a second advice would be nice....