“I want to congratulate Salvador Sobral, the winner of Eurovision 2017, not only because he gave Portugal the victory for this first time, but also because he was an Erasmus student,” the spokesperson for the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas said on Monday.

“There is no better way of celebrating 30 years of the Erasmus programme than finding, with pride, that one of us won Eurovision,” she said, congratulating the singer in Portuguese.

On Saturday Portugal won the ESC for the first time with the song "Amar pelos dois" (Love for both of us), sung by Salvador Sobral.

The song, composed by Luísa Sobral, Salvador Sobral’s sister, was awarded a record 758 points in the contest held in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The Erasmus programme, set up in 1987, is an inter-university programme for students and university teachers among European Union member states and associated states. It allows students to spend between three and 12 months studying in another country.