Portugal faces 15 year sardine fishing ban

sardinesPortuguese and Spanish fleets are capturing too many sardines and the recommendation to the European Commission is to ban its fishing for at least fifteen years to allow stocks to rise.

This drastic suggestion comes from the Commission's advisory body on fishing quotas and was slammed by Portugal’s Secretary of State for Fishing, José Apolinário, who claimed the 'Evaluation of the management plan for Iberian sardine' report used old data.

Two new defendants for Operation Marquês

tgvTwo high ranking managers at Infraestruturas de Portugal officially have been made suspects in the four-year-old Operation Marquês investigation.

One of the suspects also is a former PSD member of parliament. The two suspects, who belong to the senior management team of the company, have been involved in the TGV railway project.

Private consumption and tourism drive Portugal's economy forward

ryanairPierre Moscovici may well have been right, Portugal’s economic performance is accelerating hard, driven by the service sector and by private consumption of food and non-food items, which has recorded the biggest increase since May 2001, alongside a pleasing increase in exports.

During a flying visit on July 18th, Moscovici predicted that Portugal’s deficit will be 1.8% this year and that economic growth "will probably be above 2.5%."

'Cash payments limit' - law stays at €3,000 despite ECB criticism

eurozonePortuguese MPs have ignored the opinion of the European Central Bank and will press ahead this week with the law to limit cash payment to €3,000.

The bill was submitted to the European Central Bank for an opinion. The response criticized the initiative, suggesting that it should be scrapped.

Crooked Spanish banker 'shoots himself'

BlesaCaijaMadridMiguel Blesa, the former president of Spanish bank Caja Madrid, was found dead on Wednesday, July 19th, in a garage at a property near Cordoba.

The 69-year-old former chief financial officer was preparing for a day of hunting with a group of friends and was found shortly after eight this morning with a shotgun blast to his chest and a shotgun on the ground - "everything points to suicide," agrees the Spanish press.

Government lacks power to intervene in PT employees' plight

ptWith allegations of ‘monopolistic domination,’ the Secretary of State for Employment, Miguel Cabrita, has laid into the treatment of workers at the recently purchased telecoms company, PT.

The operator was bought two years ago by the French group Altice, owned by billionaire Patrick Drahi and as part of the consolidation plan, many workers have found themselves transferred to subsidiaries and suppliers.

Galp freebie football tickets - Public Prosecutor demands Algarve MP's immunity is lifted

footballCristóvão Norte, the Social Democrat MP who accepted a freebie trip to euro2016 courtesy of his friend at Galp Energia, faces a seriously embarrassing time as the Public Prosecutor wants to see his immunity lifted so he can face questioning and possible later charges.  

The Galpgate case already has triggered the departure of three secretaries of state, Fernando Rocha Andrade (Taxation), Jorge Costa Oliveira (Internationalization) and João Vasconcelos (Industry).

Galp freebie football tickets case - Secretaries of State also blagged tickets for colleagues

galpLogoThe three former secretaries of state rulers will formally be questioned this week, accused of taking an expenses-paid trip to watch Portugal play Hungary in Lyon in 2016 - and for asking serial tax avoider, Galp Energia, for additional tickets for heavyweight political colleagues

The three men, all of whom resigned last weekend following the Galp freebie football tickets uproar, will be questioned at length on different days by the Lisbon Department of Investigation and Criminal Action.