Speaking to Portuguese journalists in Prague at the end of the meeting of the "Friends of Cohesion" group of countries, the prime minister confirmed that, on Wednesday, he will speak at the Web Summit about "taxing the big digital giants, which generate very large revenues within the European Union and which either pay no tax at all or very little tax" within the EU.

"Those who are at the Web Summit understand this perfectly because any startup, any company that is investing in the digital area, does not fail to pay taxes in the country where it is. Now these digital giants, who occupy a global space as if it were nobody's, and are not taxed anywhere, are clearly competing unfairly with precisely these small and medium-sized enterprises, with the startups that are at the Web Summit," he said.

In the fight to tax digital giants, one of Antonio Costa's biggest 'allies' has been the European Commissioner for Competition and future executive vice-president of the Commission led by Ursula Von der Leyen, Margrethe Vestager, who will also be present at the Web Summit.

"I remember a speech that Mrs Vestager made with great courage at the Web Summit saying "it is unacceptable for you to have to pay taxes in your countries and for the big digital giants to be able to earn billions of euros in Europe and not pay a cent", she recalled, mentioning her presence at that event.

Founded in 2010 by Paddy Cosgrave, Daire Hickey and David Kelly, the Web Summit is considered one of the world's biggest technology, innovation and entrepreneurship events and has evolved in less than six years from a team of just three people to a company with over 150 employees.

The technology summit, which was born in 2010 in Ireland, has been held in Lisbon since 2016, and will remain in the capital until 2028, after the decision, in November last year, to keep the conference in Portugal for another 10 years, after a successful application.

The event is taking place in Lisbon between 4 and 7 November.