Partner website, Gylenneskor.se have stated that a telephone conference between senior EBU officials and reference group members will take place this morning to discuss security concerns about hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade after the violence that has occurred in the city over the passed days.
Of main concern is the attacks on foreign embassies by a tiny minority of hooligans yesterday evening. Attacks on foreign buildings and potential harm to foreign nationals is a major concern for the Eurovision Song Contest organisers with thousands of officials from 42 delegations and fans travelling to Belgrade for the competition in May.
Whilst the EBU has yet to confirm that thereare any discussions about the possibility of moving the contest to an alternative venue, they are watching developments very closely. Fans planning to travel to the contest are increasingly concerned about personal security issues.
News of the crisis conference came from Misa Molk of Slovenia yesterday. Slovenia's embassy in Belgrade was attacked by a small number of rioters. She is a member of the EBU's Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group and claimed on television that "that EBU now decided itself in order to collect together itself to one urgent telephone conference – a crisis meeting about the imminent risk in order to entire Eurovision Song Contest 2008 now possible must be moved to another country".
Travel insurance is usually invalidated for anyone travelling to a country that has a government travel warning. esctoday.com urges fans with tickets to check their government's travel status for Serbia to ensure they are aware of any changes in their own country's status with regards to Serbia.
esctoday.com will continue to monitor the situation and is in touch with EBU and key broadcasters and will bring you all the latest developments.
We ask readers to react responsibly to this article and concentrate on the issues of the Eurovision Song Contest ONLY, for those wishing to debate politics and reasons for the troubles, please find a politics or international relations forum.
