Faro council, in a pre-election spate of continuing good news, has paid off its State loan from the Financial Rebalancing Plan and is to embark on a spending spree of titanic proportion.
The final payment, €4.94 million, has been made and Faro's mayor, Rogério Bacalhau, has lost no time in announcing his spending plans.
The price of houses in Portugal has started to cause concern in the sleepy corridors of Brussels as the average value of property rose 7.1% last year. This was really a 6% increase as general inflation was 1.1%.
The ever-meddlesome European Commission has concluded that this increase has reached the acceptable limit and now it has to start worrying about ‘imbalances in the economy.’
Altice faces a fine of up to 10% of its worldwide turnover if the European Commission (EC) upholds allegations the company took control of fixed and mobile phone operator PT Portugal before being given clearance.
In a ‘Statement of Objections’ sent to Altice, the EC has accused the company of breaking mergers and acquisitions rules by pressing ahead in January 2015, before being given clearance to proceed.
A new study by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation has concluded that the country needs a positive migratory balance in order to maintain the working population and keep it paying into the social security fund which, in turn, will be paying pensions to an increasing number of retirees.
The study ‘Migration and Demographic Sustainability’ was coordinated by João Peixoto, Daniela Craveiro, Jorge Malheiros and Isabel Tiago de Oliveira and represents the first joined-up thinking on impacts across various interrelated sectors of demographics, economics, employment and social security receipts.
The latest in a long line of broken promises is that the EN125 road works will be finished by June 30th this year, before the ‘summer season’ that appears already to have started - so successful is the Algarve as a tourist destination.
Infraestruturas de Portugal ‘guarantees’ that the work on the section between Vila do Bispo and Olhão on the Algarve’s only free east-west road really will be completed by the end of June.
The failure of the refueling system at Lisbon airport last Wednesday had knock-on effects at 39 airports and left 50,000 thousands passengers stranded.
The hardest hit were Madrid-Barajas, Brussels, Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris-Orly and Barcelona-El Prat after the Lisbon fuel system failed. This may be the responsibility of Grupo Operacional de Combustíveis run by Petrogal - a full inquiry is underway.
The new sewage treatment plant being built in Companhiera, on the west side of the EN125 road bridge over the Arade river near Portimão, will be ready for action next March after an investment of €11 million by the regional water company.
The Secretary of State for the Environment and the head of Águas do Algarve have visited the site which will have a capacity to treat the sewage output of 140,000 inhabitants and eradicate the obnoxious smell that has welcomed road and river users for years and has made life in the village of Companheira a daily and unhealthy burden.
The Monte Rei Golf & Country Club, Vila Real de Santo António, has won the title of Best Portuguese Golf Club of 2017, adding to an impressive list of recent awards.
The latest accolade was from golfers from across Europe who voted on the Leadingcourses.com website and gave the course a score of 9.15 out of a possible 10.
