That have been many complaints about the speed at which LAA Engineering process approvals, mods and new designs. I have had recent correspondence on a US BB from a German builder, which shows that things are not as good over there.
Currently the LBA (the German counterpart of what the FAA is in the US), needs 6 months to check the documents you have to deliver before they grant your first flight request.
There was only one guy who takes care about the experimental builders - he left the LBA already years ago. Now someone has to do his job "on top" - that makes things so slow.
Compared to the USA, over here in Germany, we, the people who build her own aircraft, are only handful and no one is really interested in our issues. Since 1955 only less than 500 experimental planes were built in Germany, I think in the same period of time thousands of exp. aircraft got into the air in the USA.
The USA is, from our point of view, the Promised Land for pilots. What the German bureaucrats cannot prohibit, the bureaucrats in Brussels (European Union) can!