Between 2008 and 2014, Portuguese taxpayers unwittingly have stumped up the equivalent of 11.3% of the country’s gross domestic product to give state support to a sector that many had imagined was part of the private sector - the nation's banks.
A total of €19.5 billion has been used, says the European Central Bank in a study into the "budgetary impact of support to the financial sector during the crisis" in which Portugal's government is roundly criticised for its actions.
Portugal’s Competition Authority has given the go-ahead to the purchase of TAP by the Atlantic Gateway consortium.
"The Competition Authority issued on 15 September a draft decision not to oppose this deal because this is an operation that does not raise competition concerns," said António Ferreira Gomes, president of the Competition Authority.
A new study of poverty in Spain has confirmed the impression of a rich industrial north and a poor agrarian south.
The ten poorest towns were all found to be in the south while the ten richest were in the north with the exception of the capital, Madrid.
The municipality of Aljezur will be awarded for the third consecutive year the green flag for ‘City ECOXXI.’
This award scheme is part of an initiative promoted by the European Blue Flag Association which aims to identify and recognise good sustainability practices developed in municipalities.
In 2011, the then leader of the opposition party Pedro Passos Coelho, now Prime Minister, sent a letter which expressed his concern about the state of the country and supported the Troika financial aid package application made by José Sócrates.
In the letter dated 31 March 2011, Pedro Passos Coelho on behalf of the PSD made it clear his party would not object to "the use of external financing mechanisms" if the government decided this was the way forward.
A French millionaire was held hostage for two months in Spain while his captors forced him to use his money to buy gold bars.
The businessman, who has not been named, was released in mid-July, but arrests of the criminals came only in early September after the whole team was identified.
A 50% fall in the populations of marine mammals, birds, reptiles and fish has been recorded in the 40 years.
Worst affected have been fish needed to feed humans, according to a new report from WWF which blamed over-fishing, pollution, destruction of marine habitats and climate change for seriously reducing the size of commercial fish stocks between 1970 and 2010.
Portugal’s road and rail company, Infraestrutura de Portugal, today announced a €13 million budget to be shared with Spain to fix the bridge that links the two countries.
The bridge was opened in 1991 and needs maintenance and rehabilitation before it deteriorates further.
