29/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - Taking part in a dinner with the Alumni of the European University Institute of Florence, chaired by Yves Meny, in Brussels on Tuesday, Romano Prodi commented on the Franco-German proposal of a "permanent" President of the European Council considering that it "demands some clarification" and that "nobody wants competition between two jobs and two bureaucracies". He did, however, acknowledge that the role that would be given the "future President of the European Council and the EU Foreign Secretary could help the Union have a stronger voice in foreign and security policy". On the same occasion, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said, according to the press agency BELGA, that "we must be prepared to envisage the election of a president … who would conserve his or her national mandate", while confirming that the Benelux "would never accept a president, elected outside the Council". According to him, the half-yearly rotation of the Council presidency will be "untenable" in a Union of 25 (see EUROPE of 25 January, p.5, for the statements by Dominique de Villepin by which Verhofstadt would be a good candidate for the job of President of the European Council).