"If the revised Hungarian constitution infringes the spirit and the letter of the treaties, it is an infringement of the values of the other member states" Rui Tavares told fundamental rights Commissioner Viviane Reding and Hungarian European Affairs minister Enikő Győri today in Strasbourg in a debate on Hungary's new constitution.

"Our group's main concerns with the constitution have to do with discrimination against minorities and the questions surrounding the sufficiency of checks and balances in the provisions" he said.

Arguing the legitimacy of debating the issue in the Parliament, Tavares said that "where there are infringements of fundamental rights, the EU institutions must speak out whether it is a law, a regulation or a constitution. To say that it is a matter of cultural difference is pure constitutional relativism and cannot be accepted as an argument."

Tavares pointed out that the oft-cited two-thirds majority enjoyed by the Fidesz party in the Budapest parliament is a result of that party gaining 50%, not two thirds, of the votes cast in last year's elections. "You are using your two-thirds majority to exclude the opposition and impose a divisive constitution" he concluded.

MEPs will vote on a resolution on this in July.