The EBU has announced that during the Debriefing Meeting of the Reference Group earlier this summer it was proposed and discussed that the two semi final format could be introduced in 2008 and not in 2009 as originally discussed at the HoD meeting in Helsinki last March.

The proposal includes that all participating countries apart from the winner and the Big Four will have to go through the two semi finals starting from the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. This means that the result of the 2007 contest will not influence the 2008 contest.

The final decision though will be taken by the TV committee during its scheduled meeting in Verona, Italy on September 28. The Reference Group intends to propose this format after receiving feedback from the participating members.

The 2008 contest will be held in the Belgrade Arena (Beogradska Arena) and it will seat about 14.000 fans. The final will be held on May 24 and should there be two semi finals they will be both held on the same day, May 22, according to esctoday.com sources.