Mr Proinsias De Rossa has called for amendments to be made to the draft European Union Constitutional treaty to specifically outlaw racism and xenophobia across the European Union.
Submitting two amendments to the draft treaty, Mr De Rossa, MEP and president of the Labour Party, expressed his concern that current proposals for the Constitution "make no reference to the prevention and combating of racism and xenophobia" in the EU.
According to Mr De Rossa, the draft articles "explicitly state that such a reference is superfluous because of Article 13 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community (TEC) and because racist and xenophobic behaviour is not to be considered as a 'particularly serious crime with cross-border dimensions'".
He said this not only contradicted reality but also a number of previous declarations and statements of the Council, the Commission and the Parliament.
"I totally deplore this approach because the prevention and combating of racism and xenophobia is a fundamental prerequisite to obtaining an area of freedom security and justice for all," he said in a statement issued this afternoon as the Convention on the Future of Europe met in Brussels.
Members of the Convention have already raised other objections to the treaty, including calls for references to God to be included in it and references to federalism to be omitted.
EU leaders are to hold an emergency summit at the end of June to discuss the draft constitution.