The proposals, exclusively revelaed by insidethegames last month, would be a disaster, Jones claimed.

"To hold such a championship in an Olympic year is foolhardy since there is no point in such a competition if the top European athletes do not turn out," Jones writes in a column published in Athletics Weekly today.

"Since the Olympics represent the pinnacle of athletics success, all other competitions are secondary.

"In 2000 or 2004, would athletes such as Jonathan Edwards, Denise Lewis or Kelly Holmes have risked injury by putting themselves into the pressure cooker arena of major games only a matter of weeks before the biggest competition of life?"

Jones, who retired after guiding Britain to third place in the medal table medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics but who recently accepted a part-time role to help Ireland's athletes prepare for the London Games, continued: "The performance directors of Europe would have their necks firmly on the line at the impending Olympics and would not pressurise their athlete to compete in a stressful comptition just before London.

"If the continent's top athlete do not compete in the championships, it is likely that both TV and sponsors would vote with their feet and leave the EAA in an even weaker position."