22/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - Graham Watson, President of the Liberal Group in the European Parliament said at a conference co-organised by the FDP Group in the Bundestag, Wolfgang Gerhardt, in Wiesenbaden on 21 January, that "Now that we have the details of the Franco-German proposals for an elected European Council president, it is clear that they are unacceptable". According to him, the idea of a full-time president (who would "overshadow" the new foreign minister) is a guarantee of "institutional division" and "meddling" in the work of the Commission president. "We have not campaigned for so long for a strong president of the Commission elected by MEPs only to see that position emasculated by a Super-President of the European Council", the British Liberal-Democrat exclaimed. "We will work in the coming months to prevent this proposal seeing the light of day", he assured his audience. He then added that all European political parties will put forward prominent candidates for the presidency of the European Commission, on the occasion of the elections in June 2004.