Hungary constitution was not EU matter, passport sale is – Busuttil

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil has been taken to task by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of having supported Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban's controversial constitutional changes in 2012, during an EP debate calling for the Commission's intervention.

The Hungarian constitution approved in 2011 raised concerns with regard to the independence of the judiciary, the central bank and the data protection authority, fair conditions for political competition and political alternation, subjecting the income tax system to a two-thirds majority and giving the current majority exclusive rights to appoint officials for an unusually long term.

Busuttil, then an MEP, had described the EP debate on the Hungarian constitution as being "flawed" because it concerned a national issue that fell within the sovereignty of member state. "If we are going to discuss the content of a constitution, we should not single out one constitution of one Member State," Busuttil had said.

Muscat has suggested that Busuttil showed scant regard for Malta's sovereignty on the sale of citizenship when two Nationalist MEPs pushed the subject onto the European Parliament's agenda, leading to the rebuke of 560 MEPs in a resolution last week.

"This is a sheer manipulation of the Labour government," Busuttil told MaltaToday of Muscat's statements.

"Whenever there is a national competence I have always argued that the EU should not intervene, but when there is a shared competence I have argued equally strongly that the EU should have the power to intervene. In the case of citizenship, since we are also selling EU citizenship, there is a clear right for the EU to intervene."

EU Commissioner Viviane Reding is currently examining whether a legal basis exists for infringement proceedings to be taken against Malta, for not consulting with other EU member states or the Commission on its plans to sell citizenship at €650,000.

Busuttil's statement on Hungary

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's Labour Party has set much store in decrying attempts by Nationalist MEPs to bring the European Parliament to single out Malta in its condemnation of the Individual Investor Programme.

Although several other member states have similar citizenship-by-investment programmes, Malta's IIP has attracted global attention.

In response, Muscat yesterday accused Busuttil of using a different yardstick in June 2011 in defence of EPP party Fidesz, when Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban came under pressure from the EU.

At the time, MEPs had called on the Conference of Presidents - the leaders of the Parliament and its political groups - to consider activating Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty, which is used in the event of a clear risk of a serious breach of EU common values.

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"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," Busuttil had said in the EP.

At the time, the EP was discussing revisions to Hungary's Constitution that were yet to be implemented. Two months before, the Hungarian Parliament had approved a new constitution which raised concerns among the EU with regard to the independence of the judiciary, the central bank and the data protection authority, fair conditions for political competition and political alternation, subjecting the income tax system to a two-thirds majority and giving the current majority exclusive rights to appoint officials for an usually long term.

On 17 January 2012, the European Commission started infringement procedures against Hungary with regard to the independence of the central bank, the lowering of the mandatory retirement age of judges from 70 to 62 years old and the independence of the data protection authority.

Busuttil had argued the if the EP was going to discuss the content of a constitution, then the European Parliament 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," Busuttil said.

"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."