Of the 707 investigations into economic crimes completed last year just 63 ended in prosecution, and of these there were only 18 convictions.

The small number of cases prosecuted by the Central Bureau of Criminal Investigation (DCIAP) for crimes including receiving and sending corrupt payments, and money laundering, left the vast majority being discharged as the court found that the evidence gathered by DCIAP was not sufficiently robust to justify a conviction.

A high-ranking EU official has told Britain that it is “too generous” with welfare payments to immigrants from the EU.

Viviane Reding, EU justice commissioner, said: "It seems that some national systems are too generous. Don't blame the commission or EU rules for national choices and national regulatory systems."

Younger people in the UK are reported to be bringing a renaissance to sherry’s fortune, once consigned by comedians as a drink to offer the vicar at Christmas.

After a slow build-up, drinking Spain’s fortified wine today is trendy.

People in Paris have been given with a special manual to encourage civility when using the metro.

Paris’ public transport body released the manual for the “modern traveller” which breaks down behaviour into four categories: "helpfulness", "courtesy", "manners" and "politeness", drawn up from among more than 2,000 suggestions from the general public.

A quarter of Portugal's population was living in poverty or social exclusion in 2012, making the country in line with the EU average of 24.8% according Eurostat data released today.

In Portugal there was an increase of almost 1% between 2011 and 2012, with the number of people facing poverty or social exclusion rising from 24.4% to 25.3% of the population, equivalent to 2.7 million people.

The Association of Hotels and Resorts in the Algarve (AHETA) has called on the “authorities responsible for promoting tourism in the Algarve to begin activities to take advantage of the new added value to regional gastronomy" following the classification of Portugal's Mediterranean Diet as a UNESCO intangible.

The association welcomes the classification of the Mediterranean Diet and congratulates "the organisers of the submission process, the council of Tavira, which led to the successful addition of the diet on the UNESCO list.”

The Committee of Users of the Via do Infante (CUVI) expects that MPs will approve the suspension of tolls on the Algarve’s motorway when the topic is dicsussed in parliament on Friday.

The 14,000 name petition for the suspension of the tolls has been filed and is on Friday’s parliamentary agenda.

João Vasconcelos, the CUVI leader said that the projections and targets put forward in December 2011 clearly have not been fulfilled. Meanwhile, "the situation is getting worse in the Algarve."

As Brussels prepares to impose a limit on fees paid by business customers to their banks for processing electronic payments the head of the Portuguese Association of Banks, Faria de Oliveira, said today that banks may simply charge their customers to withdraw cash from the ATM network.

Anything that puts banking costs up will impact on profitability, so revenue will have to be obtained from another route, commented Faria de Oliveira, guaranteeing himself even fewer fans from the general banking public who will see little correlation between the banks traditional game of gouging their business customers, and a planned fee structure for customers accessing their own cash.