Without the creation of the euro rescue fund Portugal would have been out of the euro. This assertion was made today by Klaus Regling, the director of the European Stability Mechanism, the body responsible for the payment of the European part of the loan received by Portugal under the bailout negotiated with the Troika.

"If the European Financial Stability Facility had not been established three years ago, I think that Ireland, Portugal and Greece would no longer be in the eurozone and Europe would be a different place today," said Regling, appearing before a committee of the European Parliament which is investigating the role of the Troika and its affects on recipient countries.

The Algarve Tourism Association starts its annual promotion of the region to the Dutch market by taking space at the tourism fair in Vakantiebeurs, Utrecht from 14 to 19 January.

The ATA’s presence "falls within the scope of the promotional strategy set for the year 2014 whose guidelines mean we will be present to promote the Algarve at tourism and trade fairs for strategic markets for the region."

But not all at once. CS Group hotels at Herdade dos Salgados in Albufeira have been chosen by Mercedes-Benz from January to March this year to host a Euro Training event which will see 15,000 Mercedes salespeople visiting the Algarve.

"In January, February and March we will hold our global training event for sales of the new C-Class, GLA and S models, in the Algarve. I believe this event will benefit the country in terms of tourism revenue," said Joerg Heinermann yesterday, president of Mercedes-Benz Portugal.

Passenger traffic at Faro airport increased by 5.7% between July and September in the third quarter of 2013 compared with the same period in 2012 according to Algarve Tourism.

In the report ‘Algarve - Tourist Situation' from Turismo de Portugal and Algarve Tourism it is stressed that the Algarve "confirmed its position as the leading tourist region in Portugal in the third quarter of 2013."

AMAL, the group of Algarve council mayors, wants answers from the head of the Hospitals of the Algarve group and the Regional Health Authority about the complaints lodged by doctors about the poor working conditions in Portimão and Faro hospitals.

The president of AMAL, Jorge Botelho, said today that the Algarve’s 16 mayors met on Monday to consider the petition signed by 182 Algarve doctors who complained of a degradation in health care provided to the Algarve population citing the frequent postponement of scheduled surgeries, a lack of equipment and drugs, and delays in test results, and is to seek clarification from the relevant authorities.

Patients in recent days have been forced to wait for up to 13 hours to be seen by medical staff in the Emergency Department at the national health service hospital in Lagos due to a lack of doctors.

According to the local Communist (PCP) party,  these events “reveal the growing deterioration of the conditions in the health service and this hospital  which serves the population not only of Lagos, but also the neighbouring municipalities of Vila do Bispo and Aljezur.”

The Statutory Residency Test entered into force on 6 April 2013.

Since then, British tax officials have been stepping up their challenges on non-residency.

The test is designed to determine if an expat is liable for income and capital gains tax.

Industrial output across the eurozone jumped by 1.8% in November.

The increase was welcomed by analysts as a reasonable indication that the area is finally experiencing a modest recovery, especially after a drop of 0.8% in October.