<will the current examiner except the previous examiner decisions?>
It it more than just the single examiner. There are multiple signatures that sign off on the reexam cert.
<The examiner must inform his/her *>manager< of his/her intent to issue **>an Office action. The manager< will then convene a **>panel and the members will confer and< review the patentability of the claim(s).>
<Will the examiner do it on his own volition>
Whatever he does, he needs to abide by all the regulations that the USPTO lives by and which they quote ad nauseam. IMHO, the examiner would essentially have to rewrite all the SNQs and explain why these combinations of "old" art are so different from what has already been looked at. He would have to, since the requester hasn't. And if a claim was amended in order to defeat prior art, how can the examiner use the same prior art againt the amended claim?
GLTA in 2010, Opty