ESC stirs up budget debate

by Richard West-Soley 98 views

Finnish government plans to support the Eurovision Song Contest financially have allegedly stirred up trouble amongst some institutions, which claim to have suffered as a result of the Eurovision budget pledge.

Earlier this year, the Finnish government pledged four million Euros to support YLE's plans to host the 2007 contest in Helsinki. However, certain groups have claimed that this sum of money has eaten away at funding for other areas, particularly the Arts and Culture. MP Minna Sirniö, president of the Theatre and Media Workers' Union in Finland, is just one voice of protest; although supporting the promotion of Finnish culture through the Eurovision Song Contest, she makes it clear that more money for Culture in general would have been welcome.

Lottery funds for Eurovision
It seems the Ministry of Education has stepped up to defend the government's plans, offering the argument that the extra money was in fact diverted from previously untouched lottery funds. Director General for the Ministry, Riitta Kaivosoja, puts the decrease in Culture funding down to extra financial support for Finnish libraries this year, and not the Eurovision Song Contest push.

Despite the funding controversy, a change to the budget proposal is unlikely now, although a record number of comments have been lodged. YLE still have to find an estimated nine million more Euros to make the projected 13 million Euro budget for the contest in 2007.

Richard West-Soley

Senior Editor

Richard's ESC history began way back in 1992, when he discovered the contest could fuel his passion for music and languages. Since then, it's been there at every corner for him in some way or another. He joined the esctoday.com team back in 2006, and quickly developed a love for writing about the contest. In his other life, he heads the development team at the learning resources company Linguascope, and writes about all aspects of language learning on the site Polyglossic.com.