The Socialist Party has won the European elections in Portugal, marked by a record low in Sunday’s turnout at the polls with 37% of those eligible bothering to vote.

With the Vila Real result still to come in, the Partido Socialista (PS) party led by António José Seguro, has secured a share of around 31.46% of the vote, ahead of 27.7% received by the ruling coaltion Alliance, and will return 8 or 9 Socialist MEPs to the European Parliament.

The Faro District Command of the Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP) has issued vocational training certificates to 12 police officers who have attended a new sign language course.

The course in Portuguese took place between February 12th and May 8th under the "Algarve - Safe Destination" programme in cooperation with the Deaf Association.

Rating agency Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS) today raised its outlook on Portuguese government debt in a welcome move that sees it join the other three key agencies in a positive assessment for the country.

The Canadian agency raised its outlook from negative to stable, keeping it at BBB, indicating that the agency now has a more favorable opinion of government debt and may encourage a rise in the rankings by one or more of the other agencies.

The UK government appears to be intent on using fracking to liberate oil deep beneath the surface of the land.

New rules have been proposed concerning access to land to speed up the introduction of fracking.

British property buyers are beginning to return to Spain after prices there have tumbled and the British economy appears on the mend.

Although almost 90,000 expats left Spain last year, a new wave of Brits is slowly beginning to take their places.

State holding company Parpública said today that the remaining 11% of the shares in Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) still owned by the public are to be sold by June partly through a public offer, with the balance being reserved for selected institutions.

"This phase of the privatisation of the company will include a public offer in Portugal aimed at retail investors and a private placement directed at institutional investors within and outside Portugal and it is expected to be completed by the end of June 2014," reads a statement posted on the Securities Market Commission’s website.

By noon in Portugal just 12.14% of voters had filed into the polling stations, slightly more than at the same time five years ago. By 2.00pm in Italy the turnout has been 16.7% and in Germany 25.6% of voters had ticked the box. In France by 5.00pm 35.07% has chosen their parties.

By 2pm in Spain 23.83% of those eligible to vote had turned up at the polling booths, about the same percentage as in 2009. On Culatra island the percentage was zero and it is expected that by the end of the day not one vote will have been cast.

The Court of Auditors has refused Portimão council’s rescue package application for €94 million, leaving the municipality in acute danger of insolvency.

The council plans to 'work around the problem' with the government.