The management of Douro Azul, the Oporto area’s most influential and successful boat owner and operator, has demanded that parliamentary immunity for MEP Ana Gomes be withdrawn so she can answer for her comments in the press that the company was involved in corruption.
The European Parliament received the official request following a formal complaint from the Douro Azul group about statements Gomes had made about the company’s purchase and subsequent sale of the Atlântida ferry.
After the purchase by Santander of Banco Popular, two more Spanish banks are in trouble.
The Santander purchase of Banco Popular, for a nominal €1, is being followed up by a €7 billion rights issue to bolster Popular’s finances.
Polis Litoral Ria Formosa Society, the company responsible for the demolition programme affecting hundreds of Ria Formsa island properties, is spending some money on Faro Island to sort out the dunes and install an 800 metre long walkway.
The dunes’ vegetation is always getting trampled over as people go to the beach and house owners go to and from their beachside properties.
A round of grants has been agreed under the Algarve 2020 programme as the region bites into the €318.7 million on offer from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund.
The latest disbursement of €6.4 million to institutions and companies in the Algarve region went primarily to cultural heritage projects (€3.6 million) including the refurbishment of the Cineteatro António Pinheiro in Tavira, the Solar Gama Lobo in Loulé as well as covering smaller projects being undertaken by local councils.
Two news items relating to the Alojamento Local (AL) registration system for those property owners involved in short-term lettings to tourists further have reduced the chances of anyone registering without being forced to.
Owners who have their AL licence and who later remove their property from the scheme, for whatever reason, then are liable to pay capital gains tax, whether they are selling their property or not.
Four died at Portugal’s beaches as the country celebrated the Portugal Day weekend with many families heading to the cool of the rivers and the sea as temperatures in many inland areas hit 40°C.
Two young men who were playing ball at Praia da Baía in Espinho, on the coast to the south of Oporto, were swept away by a wave as they entered the water to retrieve their ball. Both are still missing with no chance of finding them alive.
On June 1st, the Left Bloc announced a series of visits to the Algarve including one to the ‘Salgados – Praia Grande ‘Eco’-Resort’ site between Armação de Pêra and Galé where MillenniumBPC is trying to sell the project to any international investor willing to take the risk.
The plan to build a golf course, three hotels and a collection of ‘tourist villages’ led to calls from the Bloquistas for "more action and fewer words to end this sort of environmental attack,” and with this in mind the party executive has applied for a parliamentary hearing to discuss the misnamed eco-resort planned for this countryside area.
Residents of Portugal, and of any other European Union country, will be able to make mobile phone calls, use data, and send SMS messages without additional roaming charges when they travel anywhere within the EU.
The new rules take effect on June 15th, 2017, with roaming surcharges for using a mobile phone outside of the home country already significantly reduced as a result of a campaign that ended with the strict limits put in place in April 2016.
