09/11/2017 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday 9 November, the European Commission announced that it will be issuing Portugal a €1.5 million advance payment from the European Solidarity Fund following the fires that have engulfed the country. The final amount of aid will be proposed after examining requests from the Portuguese authorities made in the summer. The European institution says it is prepared to examine a request from Portugal for an update to include the October forest fires. The Commission agreed in August to amend its regional Cohesion Policy programme (see EUROPE 11845). Regional Policy Commissioner Corina Creţu said that the Commission was reviewing the aid and civil protection mechanisms and proposals would be made at the end of the month (see EUROPE 11888). (PH)