The British Embassy in Lisbon has just issued a statement on a new bilateral agreement that secures the rights of Portuguese citizens in the UK and British citizens in Portugal to stand and vote in local elections in each other’s countries after the UK leaves the EU, writes Len Port.*

The statement says the agreement was signed in Lisbon by Lord Callanan, UK Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the EU, and by PT State Secretary for European Affairs, Dra Ana Paula Zacarias, in the presence of the Minister for Internal Administration, Dr Eduardo Cabrita. 

Pessimism regarding the impact of Brexit on Algarve tourism may be premature, despite a a 6-8% fall in numbers in the past two years.

Since the start of 2019, occupancy rates and hotel revenues have shown a positive balance as the region’s tourism sector prepares for another summer season.

The ever vociferous Algarve MP, Cristóvão Norte,  has been joined by fellow MP José Carlos Barros in demanding some answers to the build up of sunken dredgers in the Ria Formosa area.

Last week, another huge dredger slipped below the waters in a highly protected area at the Faro-Olhão entrance to the Ria Formosa. This is the second dredger to sink in the Ria Formosa in the past 18 months.

Police from the Department of Criminal Investigation of Portimão detained a man in the Armação de Pêra area, as he was subject to an International Arrest Warrant.

Algarve MP Cristóvão Norte has demanded of the government that there really should be medicine available in the region’s hospitals, especially drugs needed for the treatment of AIDS.

In the face of thoese being treated with drugs discovering there aren’t many available, Cristóvão Norte, a Social Democratic Party MP, said that those needing drugs for rare and chronic diseases are in "despair" that their drug supplies are intermittent at best.

Pingo Doce's senior managament has seen five of its employees, involved in a fish scam that paid for luxury cars and supplied large amounts of cash, caught by the Police.

Officers discovered €400,000 in cash at homes they raided after Pingo Doce management helped uncover a scheme in which certain employees received money from a company that supplied fresh fish, not necessarily the best value for money, to the exclusion of other suppliers.

The head of the Algarve’s State-run group of hospitals has slammed the merger of the Faro, Lagos and Portimão units, saying that the merger of the three hospital managements into one, had been “poorly done and did not benefit the region.”

The president of the Hospital Centre of the Algarve said she was against the way in which the hospitals had been merged in a single hospital management centre and lamented the lack of medical personnel in the region.

The Foreigners and Borders Service at Faro Airport has nabbed a 50-year-old Portuguese citizen who is wanted in France for attempted murder.

The prime suspect for the attack in the Lille area of France, was named on a European Arrest Warrant issued by the French authorities.