Strasbourg, 26/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday morning, Finnish EPP-ED MEP Piia-Noora Kaupi and German Liberal Alexander Alvaro held a press conference on the sidelines of the Strasbourg plenary session, to which they also invited the young Finn who had just completed his military service and who was the millionth person to electronically sign the “One seat” petition. This petition calls for a single seat for the European Parliament in order to improve the institution's efficiency and reduce the waste of time and costs involved in travelling between Brussels and Strasbourg. The MEPs said that, in spite of there being no provision in the constitutional treaty for citizens' initiatives, they expected the European institutions to give serious consideration to the petition. They have also decided to write to their colleagues in the national parliaments on this issue and to get them to put further pressure on governments so as to bring the matter of where the EP should sit to an acceptable conclusion. They also hope to have an independent study carried out in to the advantages and disadvantages of the current three-centre situation and are calling on the Commission to conduct a Eurobarometer investigation on the issue. (oj)