Novo Banco has started to sell off non-core assets with two deals in two days helping to reduce liabilities and boost the loss-making bank’s cash position and capital ratios.
The sale of a 40% stake in road toll operating company Ascendi leaves Novo Banco with €240 in cash and the other seller, Mota-Engil with €360 million by reducing its shareholding from 60% to a minority stake.
Italy has begun to tackle its problem of food waste with a series of incentives to change behaviour.
The country is estimated to waste some five million tonnes a food every year. A new law adopted by its parliament on Tuesday aims to save about 1 million of those tonnes by judicious use of “doggy bags”.
French champagne producers are trying to outfox the effects of climate change on their crops.
Already over the course of the last 20 years the French harvest has had to take place two weeks ahead of the traditional schedule. Even then the grapes are larger and the alcohol content has gone up by about one degree.
Galp, the Portuguese energy company deeply involved in the current oil exploration row and in court over its refusal to pay the ‘extraordinary energy contribution’ of over €100 million, treated three of Portugal’s top politicians to Euro2016 tickets and travel to and from France by privately charted aeroplane.
The three politicians stupid enough to think this acceptable, are:
Don’t worry about paying fines for travelling without a ticket on Portugal's public transport system, the government has not collected a fine for nearly three years.
The amount of uncollected fines now tops €50 million as not a single fine has been collected in two years and eight months while the government ‘continues to study solution’ to replace the old methods of collecting overdue amount and penalties applied to fare-dodgers.
Castro Marim council has decided that people do not want to move to villages that do not have a mains water supply.
With this in mind, as much as serving those ratepayers that never have been on the mains, the council has asked for European Community financial help to lay pipes to 28 of its mains-free villages.
Drones are being deployed to patrol tourist resorts in Spain.
The move comes in response to fears of terror attacks, but the drones are capable of monitoring much more.
Six Germans have found themselves in trouble this week with Spanish law officials.
A German man has blamed toilet paper for a wildfire on a Canary Island which resulted in the death of a park official and the evacuation of 700 people from their homes.
