The Loulé Administrative Court has issued a ruling today, suspending the Galp-ENI consortium’s TUPEM licence which now is invalid.
The 'Título de Utilização Privativa do Espaço Marítimo' licence was challenged by the anti-oil, Platform for an Algarve Free of Petroleum (PALP), which had asserted that the oil and gas drilling licence issued to Galp-ENI was invalid and that it should not be allowed to drill a test well in the ocean floor off Aljezur.
It’s large trebles all round in the EDP boardroom after the Energy Services Regulatory Authority ‘recalculated’ the €7.5 million fine it had issued in 2015 and came up with a more than generous 75% discount.
EDP Comercial already has paid the settlement of €950,000. The company was fined for the way in which it denied its poorest customers the ‘social tariff’ rate to which they were due. It has yet to compensate those of its customers who should have been on the low-rate social tariff but were charged the full rate.
Owners of Tourist Rental properties have been rushing to register under the current Alojamento Local scheme before the new rules come into force.
The President already has signed off the amendments to the AL laws, despite serious reservations, which will come into effect in October this year.
A report in the Financial Times indicates that Brussels is fed up with certain of its member countries handing out Golden Visas to non-EU nationals - it fears that the current vetting procedures are inadequate to stop money laundering.
Dirty money from Russia is under the spotlight, especially as it heads to EU states where money can buy citizenship and can enable free Schengen area travel.
At last, there is news for clients of Premier FX, the Almancil-based foreign exchange company that abruptly closed its doors in late July, freezing its customers’ funds and failing to communicate - beyond a brief message on its website, apologising “for any inconvenience that this may cause.”
On 13 August, 2018, on the application of the FCA, the High Court made an Administration Order in respect of Premier FX Ltd.
Fewer Portuguese are holidaying in the Algarve, opting instead for cheaper destinations including Tunisia, Morocco and Cape Verde.
The percentage of nationals heading south to the Algarve has dropped a full 5% from last year but the region is still the top destination within Portugal, followed by the currently pristine Alentejo coast (up 9%) and the northwestern coast.
The Navigator Company, one of Portugal’s largest eucalyptus producers for use in its pulp factories, lost €650 million in less than two hours today as a US trade battle over anti-dumping tariffs is expected to cost shareholders 20% of the company’s 2018 profits.
Shares in the Portuguese paper company suffered in brisk trading in Lisbon today after a paper sales tax was levied by the US.
Monchique's tragedy was predictable, like last year's and all the others in the past 30 years, as was the flooding in Albufeira, twice in a row.
On Dec,27th 2013 Vida Económica summarised my talk in Viseu: "Organised by Civil Protection, with the support of the National Association of Professional Firefighters, a seminar on the protection of forests was held. Consultant Jack Soifer detailed the costs of lack of prevention. "It's always much more expensive to remedy than to prevent," he said. The methods Soifer quoted, used in other countries, are despised here.
