Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday called an agreement on fiscal union between 17 eurozone countries a “watershed”, but added that it could seriously affect national sovereignty.

Speaking to MPs at the start of a session of Parliament, Mr Orban said the treaty struck on Friday seriously affects the question of national sovereignty, removes member states’ scope of legal power and creates the possibility for outside parties to have a say in national fiscal matters.

He said the opinion was formed at a summit in Brussels last week that there is a legal solution for establishing an agreement between the 17 eurozone members without breaking up the European Union. At the same time, the British rejected the cooperation initiated by the French and the Germans, he added.

Mr Orban said Parliament would have to weigh whether there was anything objectionable to the British stand.

He said Hungarians were fighting on two fronts at present, correcting the mistakes of the past and battling the effects of the crisis in the eurozone. The eurozone crisis is not Hungary’s crisis, he added.

“We did not cause [the eurozone crisis] and we cannot solve it,” he said. The main rule is to think for ourselves, not with somebody else’s head, he added.

Mr Orban said EU leaders had decided at the summit last week to lay off crisis management measures, which would stir up a storm in Europe in the coming year, especially in the first half. “And it will be stormy for us too,” he added.