madam president this debate on the hungarian constitution today is flawed for two main reasons
it singles out one member state out of twenty-seven and it concerns a national issue which falls within the sovereignty of member states
first of all if we are going to discuss the content of a constitution we should not single out one constitution of one member state
we should if anything debate the constitutions of each and every member state
some of the elements which are being contested can in fact be found in a number of other constitutions in other member states and yet we are only debating one constitution in one member state
this is wrong
secondly one has to ask what power what competence do we have to bring the issue of a national constitution to the european parliament in the first place
member states have a sovereign competence for establishing their own national constitutions and in this case we should respect the right of the hungarian people to determine their own constitution adopted by their democratically-elected national parliament
the debate we are having today on the content of this constitution should if anything be held amongst hungarian people and not in this house
whether we like it or not whether we disagree or agree with this national constitution we must respect the sovereignty and the hierarchy of law otherwise we would be setting a dangerous precedent
so when we single out a member state and when we try to act outside our competence we send a wrong signal
we would stand accused of political instrumentalisation and we would be undermining the trust of citizens in our own institution
we should not go down this dangerous road
