From an IFPS perspective it seems a question of when , not if, the staff get licensing, and certainly at Brussels the idea has been pushed by the ops staff as well as management, probably more so by the former. The staff view it as a way of increasing quality of service as currently, when validated, an IFPO has no further competency checks ufn, so the plan is to bring in proficiency checks along with licensing. It would certainly force proficiency checking to continue, rather than the current setup where new procedures are introduced, but rapidly fade into obscurity in a matter of months or even weeks; a legal requirement would force a more continuously regulated approach in IFPS, which can't be a bad thing. It may be interesting to note that the IFPOs are made up of ex assistants, controllers (civil and military), dispatchers and ops managers, so there is certainly the experience already in place to deal with such a change.
However, the whole thing is taking some time to bring about as it seems that the licenses need the approval of ICAO to hold any weight, and such things take time. It could, as Avman says, come in as early as next year, although I have some reservations, as there was recently a management reshuffle that has created some 'interesing' results.