Patents delayed, Alison Brimelow "worried"

The IPKat noticed this article on the BBC news website, in which EPO President Alison Brimelow is quoted as saying that she is becoming worried about the large backlog (of the order of millions) of pending patent applications worldwide, and is considering what should be done about it. Has the time perhaps come for 'mutual recognition', where patents granted by one office would be automatically also valid before other offices? The IPKat thinks perhaps not, at least while standards at the EPO and USPTO remain so widely different, but agrees that it doesn't hurt to talk about the possibilities.