Prime Minister "António Costa and his government show every day that they can have a more social country in Europe," he said, to underscore that the recovery from austerity was not achieved "at the expense of children and grandchildren, nor putting another burden on their backs."

Timmermans, who is currently a vice-president of the commission, said that "Portugal shows the rest of Europe how one can be responsible with taxpayers' money," for example by creating more jobs and increasing the minimum wage. "António and his government have shown the way.”

Timmermans was speaking at the PS’s European Convention, staged to kick off its campaign for the elections for the European Parliament, which take place in May.

Calling Portugal’s prime minister as a "patriot … open to the rest of the world and who tells his people to be open, optimistic, respect differences and be sympathetic to the refugees who have nowhere to go," Timmermans declared that it was time to "do something" for Europe.

"It is time to put an end to hatred and incitement to violence, to put an end to the difference in wages between men and women..., to make large multinationals pay taxes like everyone else, to commit ourselves to a sustained economy," he said, stressing the need for "a more just world" and for a strategy for Africa to help that continent now.

As a priority, Timmermans cited the need to find homes for young people, "who are desperate to find one in all major European cities", as well as to say "no" to a new arms race and polices of exclusion, nationalism and hatred.