Brussels, 25/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - Some fifteen members of the EPP Group at the European Convention called upon the Intergovernmental Conference on Monday to accept, without major change, the compromises reached at the Convention. Elmar Brok, Jean-Luc Dehaene, John Bruton, Inigo Mendez de Vigo, Alojs Peterle, René van der Linden, Marta Fogler, Marietta Giannakou, Erwin Teufel, Christoph Palmer, Joszef Zieleniec, Alain Lamassoure, Filadelfio Basile and Joachim Wuermeling call on the IGC to: - not question the compromises reached by the Convention concerning the key elements of the institutional structure; - give concrete support to the principles of transparency, democracy and effectiveness by accepting the ideas of the Convention on a legislative Council (a Council which always meets and takes decisions in public is "essential" for bringing Europe closer to citizens); - keep to the Convention's compromise on a Foreign Minister who would be a full member of the European Commission; - maintain structured cooperation on security and defence; - maintain the principle of "degressive proportionality" for the distribution of seats at the European Parliament, and "not change the upper limit for seats again"; - maintain the EP's budgetary powers as set out by the Convention (any formula limiting these rights "will come up against strong resistance from the EP and national parliaments"); - and include in the preamble to the Constitution a reference to Christian heritage, as proposed by the EPP-ED group and by several IGC delegations.