The Riga city council will allot approximately EUR 1 million for the organization of the Eurovision Song Contest this year, Riga Mayor Gundars Bojars' press secretary Guntars Kukuls told to the Latvian press agency LETA.
Representatives of the Eurovision monitoring council and organizers from the Latvian broadcaster LTV visited Bojars today in order to discuss organization of the song contest.
According to Kukuls, EUR 400.000 allotted by the Riga city council will be meant for security measures, EUR 600.000 for all entertainment aspects. An agreement has been reached that LTV will closely co-operate with the city council's Culture Department, which will be responsible for organization of cultural events in Riga during the so-called Eurovision week. “Riga feels obliged to see that people who attend the festival leave here with fond memories”, Kukuls said.
The monitoring council's head Ojars Rubenis told that the Riga city council “is, in fact, the major sponsor of the Eurovision Song Contest 2003”.
The Latvian government has allotted EUR 9 million for the Eurovision Song Contest, including EUR 5 million for investments in LTV.
