Leaders of the European Union need to make decisions concerning the next few years of the community before personnel questions are put on the agenda, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Brussels on Tuesday.

Regarding the next President of the European Commission, he stated that the European People's Party's victory at the recent European elections should not "automatically lead to concrete nominations".

He insisted that cardinal issues should be resolved first, adding that "constitutional identity" was the most important such issue for Hungary. He argued that European institutions have recently overstepped the boundaries of their authority defined by EU law, a practice that "we must put an end to". That is why, he pointed out, Hungary does not support automatic nominations.

Terms of the EU treaty must be observed with the "implacability of the law" and disingenuous attempts to change the treaty must be stopped, he said. He insisted that if the European Council approved of the nomination of the winning party's candidate to the post, it would put in place an automatism, which would be equal to changing the treaty without authorisation.

Concerning critical remarks by European Socialists and Liberals over his Fidesz party, Prime Minister Orbán called for more respect to "Europe's nation states, its parties, and sometimes, their leaders, too".

(Prime Minister's Office)