EBU Press Conference: 43 countries for ESC!

The EBU Press Conference has begun. Follow the key points below. 43 countries have entered submissions to participate at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, Serbia, Montenegro, Georgia, Czech Republic for the first time, and Hungary and Austria have applied to return! As reported this morning exclusively by esctoday.com, Italy are not present in the list!

Key points from the press conference:

• Ukrainian dancer will be sitting in the green room tomorrow night with the other participants but will not perform.
• The Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be broadcast in all participating countries live
• Bosnia-Herzegovina, Andorra and Australia will also broadcast the contest
• Svante Stockselius made a point of noting that this is a special year for Romania and for TVR, with a special 40th anniversary year

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST BREAKING NEWS

• As predicted earlier today by esctoday.com, the 'breaking news to be anounced at the press conference today was to be the list of countries on the provisional list for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest!
• 43 countries have entered tojoin the Eurovision Song Contest! Serbia, Montenegro, Georgia, Hungary, Czech Republic and Austria are all entering
• The full list is shown at the end of this article
• The 43 countries willnow be notified of the fees that they will need to pay in order to participate and have two weeks to decide whether to participate or withdraw.
• All countries that appear on the final list WILL be able to participate, meaning a maximum of 29 countries competing in the semi-final in Helsink, this marks a clear change in policy for the EBU who as recently as last month remained certain of the 'maximum of 40 countries rule'i
• 10 semi-finalists will qualify and there will be 24 countries in the final on May 12th.

FULL PROVISIONAL LIST OF COUNTRIES FOR THE 2007 EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

1. Albania
2. Andorra
3. Armenia
4. Austria
5. Belarus
6. Belgium
7. Bosnia Herzegovina
8. Bulgaria
9. Croatia
10. Cyprus
11. Czech Republic
12. Denmark
13. Estonia
14. Finland
15. France
16. FYR Macedonia
17. Georgia
18. Germany
19. Greece
20. Hungary
21. Iceland
22. Ireland
23. Israel
24. Latvia
25. Lithuania
26. Malta
27. Moldova
28. Monaco
29. Montenegro
30. Netherlands
31. Norway
32. Poland
33. Portugal
34. Romania
35. Russia
36. Serbia
37. Slovenia
38. Spain
39. Sweden
40. Switzerland
41. Turkey
42. Ukraine
43. United Kingdom