The Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) announced today that it identified fifty illegal foreigners working in Vilamoura, mostly women who worked in dubious premises.

The SEF said its surveillance operation to combat illegal immigration was undertaken with the Loulé GNR and focussed on two nightlife establishments in Vilamoura.

During the raids the SEF also nabbed the landlords for using foreign nationals illegally, the fine for this alone is between €2,000 and €10,000.

Three countries joined forces with the UK in voting against the 2014 budget of the EU.

Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK were opposed to the compromise reached on the budget which saw cuts of about 6% compared to 2013. The four countries are said to have wanted to slash the budget further.

After hard negotiating, the approved budget totals €135.5 billion. Greater funding will be directed to economic growth, jobs, and humanitarian aid.

Train travel from the UK to European destinations has been made much easier by the introduction of a new pan-European booking service.

For the first time, travellers can book tickets from Britain to Europe in a single transaction. Some Europe-to-Europe destinations can also be found.

Loco2.com says its mission is to make booking a train as simple as booking a flight. Previously, rail users had to use a host of different web sites.

A clampdown on the building of holiday homes in Switzerland has caused mountain resort property prices to soar.

Some resorts have seen a sudden surge of 10 to 15% since the cap on second homes was introduced in March 2012.

The ban prevents the construction of holiday homes in communities where they already number over 20% of the total. Some 570 resort communities fall within the ban.

Lagoa council has decided to save money by keeping its traditional Christmas displays of Santas, reindeer and lights in the warehouse, saying that traders and households ought to brighten the place up themselves.

 The Scrooge council’s reason is that the money saved will go to help the needy, so traders expecting a bright and cheerful high street to attract shoppers will wait in vain.

Council chiefs reckon the savings will be ‘tens of thousands of euros’ demonstrating that there was no budget agreed and hence no set figure to distribute to the poor.

An agreement between 175 municipalities in Tras-os-Montes, Beira Interior and Douro on the Portuguese side, and the regions of Salamanca and Zamora on the Spanish side have teamed up in a rare example of cooperation to create a European Grouping for Cooperation in the Territory of the Douro-Duero (Agrupamento Europeu de Cooperação Territorial Douro-Duero,) or AECT for short.

This organisation was formalised in April in Madrid by submitting the minutes of the meetings from 175 Portuguese municipalities. The document is now to be signed and ratified by the Spanish government, and of course will be run from the Spanish side of the border.

The Economy Minister, António Pires de Lima, said today that "tirades" from the opposition make it appear that they are "angry about the economic recovery."

Pires de Lima was in parliament today involved in the discussions over the 2014 State Budget which went on for 5 hours, not quite a full working day despite politicians' referring to the session as a marathon.

The Portuguese government is likely to register a revenue shortfall of an estimated €74 million if it does not alter the section in the 2014 State Budget that increases the price of rolling tobacco, according to THIS – the European Association of Producers, Distributors and Importers of Tobacco.

"The Government's proposal could cause a 70% drop in sales of rolling tobacco and an increase in tobacco smuggling and counterfeiting," read today’s statement issued by the association.