Portugal’s Finance Minister, Mario Centeno, went to parliament today and admitted that yes, there had been mismanagement at Caixa Geral de Depósitos poor and that an audit and a new inquiry were necessary.
Centeno was in parliament for the second time in less than a week to respond to the EY audit that has identified the appalling loans given by the state owned bank between 2000 and 2015.
Spain’s post office company is to enter the Portuguese market with a 24-hour parcel delivery service.
Correos, a courier company 100% owned by the Spanish state, announced on Tuesday that it will start to expand internationally and also aims to enter the market for financial services.
The elimination of tolls on the Algarve’s motorway is back on the political agenda with new proposals from the Left Block and CDU, demanding the scrapping of the regional toll system, being debated in parliament on February 8th
The Algarve’s ‘Via do Infante Users’ Commission,’ CUVI, is demanding a toll-free Algarve to be established as early as 2019.
If the President of the Republic signs off the law allowing the naming of large debtors to banks, the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the past behaviour at Caixa Geral de Depósitos will be able to access information on problematic bank loans, despite ‘banking secrecy’ which has been used to hide many of the details.
Judge Neto Moura is to be punished for suspending a domestic violence sentence as ‘the woman had a lover.’
Justifying his sentence with quotes from the Bible, the out-of-touch judge will be subject to disciplinary action.
Comments by the Environment Minister about the folly of buying a diesel car, due to a predicted low resale value, have been pounced on by the PSA vehicle manufacturing group, saying the statement has caused, “uncertainty and alarm among customers.”
In an interview published Monday in the Jornal de Negócios newspaper, minister João Pedro Matos Fernandes said that it is, "very evident that anyone who buys a diesel car, in four or five years it’s not going to have much resale value."
British nationals who moved to retire in EU countries, including France and Spain, will have no local healthcare cover in the event of a 'no deal' Brexit.
Pensioners currently receive local treatment reimbursed by the NHS under EU reciprocal arrangements.
Portugal’s widely proclaimed ‘fight against corruption’ is at a standstill, according to Transparency and Integrity whose latest report points out continuing public scandals involving corruption and lack of ethics, and the alleged attempts of political control over the Supreme Councils of the Judiciary and the Public Ministry.
The Corruption Perceptions Index 2018 shows Portugal slipped from 29th to 30th place in the 180 country ranking, losing the one place gained in 2017.
