In the presence of 32 entrepreneurs, directors, doctors and a consultant, a debate on ‘the future of Portugal and the EU’ was held at FNAC in Faro and later at FNAC in Guia.

Faro Mayor Rogério Bacalhau opened the first event and spoke about the large debt that his predecessors left him. He emphasised that the important thing is to work to repair what needs to be improved and gave as an example the renovation of old buildings in Faro that has generated many local jobs.

Twenty years ago, Finland was as Portugal. Like us, far away in Europe, very dependent on two markets, its large Russian neighbour and small Sweden.

Like us, exporting natural resources, fish, copper and cellulose, and products of limited technology, footwear, textiles, crystals and ship repair.

Squawk Algarve is a brand new Facebook-based group that has been launched to support business owners across the Algarve.

The initiative of Alyson Sheldrake, a local professional artist, and her photographer husband Dave, the idea of Squawk Algarve is simple - to create a community of like-minded people willing to support each other, give advice, share tips, and try to help solve each other's business problems.

Familiar to Algarve visitors and residents alike, the KissFM radio station broadcasting from Albufeira and more recently from Lisbon, is part of a network of media companies controlled ultimately by the billionaire Brazilian, Bishop Edir Macedo Bezerra (main picture) who founded the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD).

Portuguese registered company Global Difusion SGPS owns KissFM and several other Portuguese radio stations and lists board members David Santos Perpetuo and Maria João Romão Dias Silva.

Portuguese authorities announce that Portugal will not share liquidity with other EU countries.

Portugal's regulated online poker market will not be open to international liquidity, as the country plans to follow France's example and segregate active players on the soon-to-be-launched dot.pt poker rooms.

It is likely that some readers of the algarvedailynews may still have shares in Lloyds Banking Group, despite them still being worth significantly less than when Lloyds Bank took over the crippled HBOS during 2008-09.

Most readers will be aware that the process of the then financially-sound Lloyds attempting to save the sinking ship of HBOS led to its collapse and having to itself be “rescued” by the British taxpayer, thus causing the share-price to plummet and dividend payments to be suspended (only resumed in 2014).

NALLE, the National Association of Local Lodging Establishments, had its formal launch at a recent seminar in Faro hosted by Safe Communities Portugal. Addressing Local Lodging, eight high-ranking officials from different branches of government made presentations in English in order to reach out to over 300 owners, operators and agents in attendance.

Entitled “Local Lodging as an asset to the Algarve tourist industry”, the conference addressed broad-reaching subjects to clarify new Local Lodging legislation and its simplified requirements.

Having just recently put Freeport, along with its main shareholder CEREP UK Investment D GP Ltd.,  into voluntary liquidation while owing HM Revenue & Customs over £26.6million, it's nice to see that Freeport's former company directors are still taking care of what really matters: their own interests, along with the interests of The Carlyle Group - Freeport's owner before it went bust.

Just before leaving the Freeport sinking ship, the directors set up a ‘management’ company called Freeport Retail Limited to oversee the administration of all the Freeport/Carlyle property and retail interests in Europe.