Brussels, 20/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - The S&D and EPP groups at the European Parliament entered a new battle on Tuesday 19 April about the new Hungarian constitution adopted the day before by the Hungarian parliament. In a press release, the S&D says the Hungarian constitution “is a step back into the past”, in the words of the S&D's leader, Martin Schulz of Germany. On the same day, echoing the controversy about a new Hungarian media law earlier in the year, the Hungarian delegation of the EPP group slammed the constitution as a “demagogic attack against Hungarian sovereignty by the European Socialists.”
In a debate at the EP, Martin Schulz said that the new constitution was a constitution of a single-party type, which had been introduced without genuine debate. He urged the European Commission to study it to ensure it was fully compatible with EU values.
The EPP delegation described this request from the Socialists as a serious attack on Hungarian sovereignty because national constitutions are a matter for nation states to decide upon and “even Mr Schulz and the European Socialists should not question the right of the Hungarian Parliament, whose members were elected by Hungarian citizens in a democratic way, to adopt a new constitution. Mr Schulz should have rather called his Hungarian Socialist fellows to represent their voters and participate in the debate in the Hungarian Parliament on the new constitution, which they refused to do.” The Hungarian EPP delegation said that Martin Schulz was making a “false statement”.
The EPP delegation says that “the new Hungarian constitution is built upon common European traditions and values, (and) incorporates the achievements of the Lisbon Treaty”, and Fidesz, the party of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, “believes in democracy and respect for freedom of thought.”
The S&D Group at the EP is not the only body concerned about the new Hungarian constitution, described as the “Orbán Constitution” by its critics. On Monday 18 April, the head of the ALDE Group, Guy Verhofstadt, asked EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding to check whether the new constitution contradicted European democratic principles, the rule of law and respect of human rights. The Hungarian government pledged last week to send the new constitution to be scrutinised by the European Commission. (L.C./transl.fl)