Depends on what kind of flying you want to do. For 91/135, especially bush flying it would be good to have.

If it's airlines, your priority should be getting a seniority number as fast as possible. College and flight training would come first, then a regional job (or 135/91 jet job). The A&P would be more of a hobby thing when you can get around to it.

Any pilot with a decent mechanical aptitude can understand the systems sufficiently to fly the plane. I would have reservations about a pilot who can't do a brake job on a car or understand a basic DC electrical diagram.


Disclaimer: I'd love to have an A&P and work on my own airplane. I wrench my own cars. And I may do the A&P as I near retirement. But it's not the direct path to an airline career. You can of course choose to take the side road if you like.

If you really want to fly in Europe (it will be easier to get a good airline job in the US), I'd still look at training in the US just to save a lot of money, then do a EASA license conversion(also available in the US). That way you'll have both certs and can choose to work wherever the best opportunity is (probably the US for the forseeable future).

Also look into ab initio training programs sponsored by EU airlines (probably best to checkout pprune.org for that).