Today Friday 1st December, at 18.30 CET, EBU will be giving a press conference at the Sala Polivalenta, in Bucharest. The published agenda is as follows: Final update on Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006, news, latest information, Questions & Answers and most importantly breaking news about Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Finland.

Although a lot of unreliable speculation has been going on around the internet about the announcements this evening, the known facts are these:

Italy will not return in 2007. As esctoday.com reported exclusively earlier today and much to the disappointment of Italy’s fans all over Europe, we will not be seing Italy in Helsinki.

The Big Four – that is the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain – have made it absolutely clear in the past that they would refuse to broadcast two Semi Finals. So it seems highly unlikely that EBU would go for that option.

It seemsrather probablethough that EBU will announce the list of applicant countries for Helsinki. On November 13, Executive Supervisor, Svante Stockselius confirmed to esctoday.com that "the preliminary list of participating countries will be announced in the beginning of December and the final list in the beginning of January". So it is not unlikely that there will be an announcement this evening.
Stay tuned for more news as they come in from the on-the-spot esctoday team!