The mayor of Olhão, António Pina, aims to head off another approaching row between the town hall and the population by issuing a pre-emptive press release concering his plans for the iconic twin markets that define the city’s river front.

Pina’s claim that the "municipal markets are one of our top priorities" has done little allay fears that the functioning of the markets will be impeded by his plans to turn the main Av. 5 de Outubro into a one way system, remove parking to the south of the markets and restrict delivery area parking.

Matos Correia, the chairman of the parliamentary committee looking into the dark and corrupt past of State-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos, has resigned while accusing Socialist and Left Bloc committee members of "trampling over democracy."

The Social Democrat chairman quit, as he believes that left-wing parties have been "limiting the commission's objectives," and that this is illegal and anti-democratic.

The German carrier Lufthansa announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to raise the salaries of its pilots by 8.7% over four years.

Pilots have also been promised one-off bonus payments amounting to between €5,000 and €6,000. The pilots’ union Cockpit called this “around half a month’s salary”.

The US Lone Star fund, the company favoured by the Bank of Portugal to buy and manage Novo Banco, has invited a group of leading Portuguese companies to invest in the bank.

Amorim, Sonae, Jerónimo Martins and the Violas group all have received a formal invitation to join the vulture fund, if it successfully secures Novo Banco, and take up blocs of shares in the loss-making Novo Banco.

Portugal’s airports management company, the French-owned ANA, has been given six months to present a proposal to the Government to turn the Montijo airbase into a commercial airport aimed at relieving the pressure on Lisbon’s overstretched Humberto Delgado airport.

A memorandum of understanding was signed today, stating that "within a period of 180 days from today’s date" a report on Montijo will be submitted that will include a new master plan for the expansion of capacity at Humberto Delgado Airport, in order to replace the previously approved Lisbon Airport Development Plan.

Confirmation of last year’s tourism figures for the Algarve, and Portugal as a whole, have delighted even the most conservative commentators with 2016 now being lauded as an historic year for the country, led by the booming Alharve.

According to a statement from the Algarve Tourist Board’s Desidério Silva, still annoyed at having his budget cut, "After a difficult year at all levels due to the meager resources allocated to us, we have seen an exemplary performance in terms of tourism.

At the height of Portugal’s financial crisis in 2013, private-equity firm ECS Capital took over the Herdade dos Salgados resort in Portugal’s southern Algarve region with its Miami-style palm-tree lined golf course surrounded by lakes along the Atlantic ocean, writes Henrique Almeida for Bloomberg.

The resort was among 10 hotels, three golf courses and other real estate assets the firm took over from investor Carlos Saraiva after he buckled under his debt load. The transfer was part of an attempt to cap banks’ bad loans and bolster debt recovery, and the hospitality industry expected Lisbon-based ECS to turn around and offload the assets to sector players.

With the Government’s White Paper publication, UK citizens living in the EU present their ‘UK Citizens in Europe – Towards an Alternative White Paper’.   

This is the biggest group of British citizens’ organisations in Europe working together for the first time to call for their serious concerns to be acted on before Article 50 is triggered.  The groups represent thousands of British citizens living and working across the continent, writes the Brits in Europe platform