The former leader at BES subsidiary Rioforte, João Rodrigues Pena, said today that he believed that the company was "unfortunately, doomed from the start," stating that the collapse was all down to poor management within Grupo Espírito Santo.

"Today I am convinced with the information that I have, which is to a large extent public due to the work of the commission of inquiry, that the collapse of Grupo Espírito Santo was due to poor management practices and its serious financial situation which went for years and which the events of September 2013 to August that year unfortunately led to the inevitable collapse," said Pena to the parliamentary commission that is looking into the management of Banco Espírito Santo and Grupo Espírito Santo.

People in the UK appear increasingly keen to chalk up credit card and personal loan debt.

Demand has been at its highest since the recession, having spiked in the pre-Christmas period, according to a Bank of England survey.

Eurozone growth is at its lowest rate in more than 18 months.

The region’s three largest economies remained weak in the ending three months of 2014.

British detectives will travel to Greece to reinvestigate the Ben Needham case, the two-year old toddler who disappeared on the Greek island of Kos in 1991.

The Home Office has agreed extra funding for the South Yorkshire police.

Portugal’s Court of Auditors' report on a high speed rail service, including a link between Lisbon and Madrid, was released today.

The Portuguese high speed rail project was cancelled in 2012 and today's report concludes that the €11.6 billion cost estimate would have made the railway ‘not financially viable.’

Last year was the hottest year ever experienced in the UK.

This was in accord with both the records which began in 1910 and also the Central England Temperature series which started in 1659 and is the longest running record of its kind.

Supermarket chain Pingo Doce announced today that its checkout staff are again accepting payment by bank card for purchases under €20.

In September 2012 Pingo Doce introduced the minimum transaction level for those paying by plastic in order to put pressure on the card processing company SIBS whose fees it said were excessive.

Unemployment in Spain has had its sharpest fall since 1999 when the euro was adopted.

Official government figures indicate that more than 253,000 people came out of registered unemployment from December 2013 to December 2014.