However, we know for sure that the sum of quotas for all regions together is 55000 or less. One of the consequences is that we cannot even consider a possibility that all regions together increased their quotas above 55000. Increasing EU quota would definitely mean decreasing AF quota. However, all possible arguments towards one of them increased a the sake of the other one would be absolutely symmetrical.Excellent analysis from Raevsky above.
Many will find comfort or angst in what he is saying. However we are still dealing with unknowns and some of those are very impactful on the numbers. For instance - for EU Raevsky is basing his numbers on an assumption that the 2013 number for visas was the quota for 50k and he has then increased by an allowance for Nacara. However because EU nor any region actually hit a limit last year we do not know the limit. So whist I agree we have no evidence to support a statement of the EU li it is increased we can't say 18k is the limit either. It is like asking a submarine commander the max depth for his boat. There is only one way to find out for sure.
We're all living in a yellow submarine....