AS the clock towers all over Lisbon tick closer to 2008, we now take you to an adventure on what remains to be expected or has transpired in Portugal for the past weeks prior to the new year. Of course, we know that Portugal having been located in the Iberian Peninsula is a destination to British tourists. This country is the fastest growing place to stay by both English tourists and expatriates and may even surpass its neighbor Spain for the next decade or so as far sa the number of foreign visitors on a pleasure cruise are concerned.

Football remains to be a phenomenon here in Portugal as well as all of Europe. It is the transnational pastime here as what is hockey is to Canada. And the Portuguese are collectively celebrating a merry Christmas indeed since their football team has just landed a spot for the Euro 2008 to be held in both Austria and Switzerland in June of next year. Portugal will be joining 14 other teams to vie for the coveted UEFA championship. They will first face off versus Turkey on June 7 in Geneva and later on June 11 with the Czech Republic. On June 15 they will face off the host Swiss team in a thriller slated in Basel. The final moments in the very suspenseful qualifier over the weekend was determined when the Portuguese team beat the Finnish team so the country can have one of the 14 slots for the UEFA championsip.

Another thing the Portuguese are celebrating but on a different tone is on the transfer of prisoners. After all, the Portuguese who are predominantly Christians deserve humane treatment this Christmas season even if they are convicted prisoners. The landmark policy was the result of an agreement forged between Portuguese and Chinese officials. Under the agreement, Portuguese prisoners who are convicted in China can now serve their prison sentences in Portugal where they are closer to their families. Of course, the Chinese have installed safeguards for this and the safeguards are entirely found in the binational agreement.

Moving towards the business front, Portuguese economic officials are expressing bullishness in the country’s economy by next year. They say that the housing and mortgage crises in the United States will never have a domino effect across markets in mainland Europe which include Portugal of course. In fact, investment group Babcock & Brown has sold all its hydro assets in Portugal to a local bank at the tune of $294.8 million. That’s a lot of money folks!

The move of Babcock & Brown comes at a time when there is changing of the guard at the political front. The rotating presidency of the European Union has recently been transferred from Portugal to Slovenia. That is one of the most remarkable occurrences in these remaining few weeks of 2007 here in Portugal. And Portugal is proud to state that it has contributed much to the European Union’s progress in the last six months.