Labour MEP Cyrus Engerer is to lead work on a resolution that will most likely call on the European Union to begin formal legal proceedings against Hungary for breaching EU law.

Engerer, who forms part of the Social and Democrats MEP grouping, will lead MEPs representing each of the other political groups in the European Parliament in drafting the joint resolution. 

Hungary has come under fire from other EU member states over its discriminatory attitude towards LGBTIQ communities, most recently when it banned the teaching of gender diversity and sexual orientation to students. 

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán was openly derided by fellow EU leaders over the law during an EU Council summit held last month, the Financial Times reported, in an unusual break from traditional protocol. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela told parliament this week that the discussion had been "emotive and at times confrontational". 

  

Controversy over the Hungarian law made headlines across Europe when football governing body UEFA turned down a request to light up the Allianz Stadium in Munich in rainbow colours, in protest against the legislation.
  
“The European Union is no place for the politics of hate. The fact that Orban has introduced a Russian styled homophobic law into the European Union’s own legislative framework must be condemned, and punished. All human beings must be protected,” Engerer said following his appointment. 
 
The resolution, he said, would be calling on the EU “to officially take the strongest action against the Hungarian government.” 

“LGBTIQ Rights are human rights, in Hungary, in Malta, in the EU and all across the world”, Engerer concluded.

Engerer has stood up to Orban in the past, most recently in March of this year when he called out “homophobes in governments” in a tweet that referenced Poland and Hungary – a tweet that drew him praise from UK writer and actor Stephen Fry.