Germany finally has managed to balance its budget for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Strong tax revenues and exceedingly low interest rates which brought down the cost of meeting its debts enabled the country to reach this goal.

Six thousand signatures, two thousand more than the minimum needed to trigger a parliamentary debate, have been collected in a protest against the proposed privatisation of Portugal’s national airline, TAP.

The signatories express their "total disagreement" with the current sale process and call for the "maintenance of TAP Group in the public sector."

The German anti-Islamist group, Pegida, has opened a branch in Spain, it has claimed.

It was launched on Twitter on 8 January, the day after the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris in which 12 people were assassinated.

Portugal's tax authority has failed to understand why six motorists have been let off fines for travelling on formerly free SCUT roads without paying tolls.

The administrative court in Braga recently annulled the six fines in a landmark case cheered by many motorists and legal experts but the tax authority may appeal to the higher court to get these decisions reversed.

The eco-vandal is back and seemingly irrepressible as development plans for two hotels and resort accommodation on sensitive land in the Ria de Alvor, Portimão have been released for public consultation.

Aprígio Santos owns shares in Butwell Trading and Investment Services SA which owns the Quinta da Rocha estate on the banks of the Alvor estuary. Butwell is registered in the free zone of Madeira and is a subsidiary of Imoholding which is owned by Aprígio dos Santos.

IKEA Portugal has slipped out a notification that, following its expansion plan it today has started the land cleaning process at the site between Loulé and Faro where it plans to build a large shopping development.

According to the Swedish company, 'this is the first step of the construction process of a project that includes an IKEA store and a shopping center, which will allow the creation of 3,000 direct and indirect jobs, for a total investment amount of €200 million.’

Toll gantries on Portugal’s motorways was "a mistake," admits the Estradas de Portugal president

On a national network where motorists happily were using Via Verde to pay tolls, putting up gantries on motorways was "an error."

Retailers appear to have paid the price for heavy discounting in advance of Christmas as December figures were at their worst level since the financial crisis.

Retail sales fell by 0.4% in December, the poorest performance since 2008.