Cyrus Engerer announced today that he will contest next year’s European Parliament election with the Labour Party.

In a Facebook post, Engerer said he was accepting the request made to him by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and was “honoured” by the encouragement he received from various people.

In May, Engerer had stepped down from his role as the Prime Minister’s EU representative.

Engerer was a member of the Nationalist Party and served as PN’s Sliema Deputy Mayor, but he defected to the Labour Party shortly before the 2013 general election.

He had stood for the 2014 European Parliament elections with Labour, but withdrew his candidacy when a court of appeal sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for two years, after he was found guilty of distributing pornography.

In his Facebook post, Engerer criticised Nationalist Party MEPs Roberta Metsola and David Casa, who, he said, had gone “against what the Maltese believe in”.

“Malta’s six MEPs should always put Malta’s interests first,” he said.