Brussels, 03/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - The President of the European International Movement, Jose Maria Gil Robles (MEP and former EP President), has unveiled what he describes as a "Finnish style solution" to the vexed question of the Presidency of the European Council. Speaking at a conference organised by the France and Germany European Movement in Berlin last week, Gil Robles called for a "president elected for a reasonable time" to give greater visibility and stability to the Council's work, saying he feared the "greatest confusion if there was an attempt to give the president a parallel administration that was not responsible to the European Parliament, and if, moreover, he or she were given a budget not controllable by the EP". According to the Spanish Partido Popular MEP, such a president would have representative functions and chair sessions of the European Council and Council, but should in no way have executive functions. A president along the lines of the French fifth republic is impossible today, said Gil Robles, suggesting "a compromise of a "Finnish style solution" of a Presidency of the Council with broad competencies in security and foreign policy exercised via a member of the Commission appointed with special confidence of the Council under parliamentary control".