Portugal’s Finance Minister, Mario Centeno, has been sent back to the drawing board to devise additional ‘just in case’ financial measures to keep Brussels happy, the so-called 'Plan B'.

The Eurogroup, made up of Europe’s finance ministers, said today that Portugal has been told to prepare additional measures, to be implemented "as needed" to ensure the 2016 State Budget is in line with the Stability and Growth Pact.

Portugal’s National Data Protection Commission (CNPD) has rejected a Socialist government key proposal in its 2016 State Budget that would have enabled the taxman to receive details of everyone’s bank account balances.

The CNPD decided that the Government clearly would be acting against the rights of Portugal’s citizens if the State gave itself the power to know what is in citizens' bank accounts and the move would damage constitutional rights.

The Socialist Party in Spain lost it second vote of confidence in parliament on Friday.

Party leader Pedro Sanchez’s proposal to govern was rejected by 219 votes. The 131 votes in favour came from the Socialists, Ciudadanos and a very small political party from the Canary Islands.

The parliament in France voted last week to penalise smartphone manufacturers which refuse to cooperate with terrorism investigations.

The controversial amendment stipulates that a private company which fails to hand over encrypted data to an investigating authority would face up to five years in jail and a €350,000 fine.

The arrival of a chartered flight from Greece with 68 refugees on board is scheduled for tomorrow, Monday 7th March, representing the largest group so far to come to Portugal which is struggling to fill its EU quota.

The European Support Office on Asylum hired the aeroplane which is scheduled to land at 05:25 at the Figo Maduro military airport in Lisbon.

Spain’s acting foreign minister said that if the UK votes to exit the EU, “we would be talking about Gibraltar” the very next day.

José Manuel García-Margallo was speaking on Spain’s Radio Nacional and said that, while he hoped the UK would remain in the EU', its withdrawal would represent “a golden opportunity” for Spain to become the US’s “privileged partner” in Europe.

Portugal exported more than €737 million of wine last year, a record result with sparkling wines the most profitable for producers.

The volume of wine exports actually fell but the price achieved for Portugal's ever increasing quality rose for the sixth consecutive year.

Portugal’s government has lost the case brought by Santander which claimed that its swaps contracts involvoing Portugal's public transport companies were entered into knowingly and were valid.

A London court agreed with the bank’s position and ordered Portugal’s public transport companies to pay the €1.8 billion due under the terms of the complex financial instruments.