Romania has announced that it will not participate in Eurovision 2024, citing financial problems.
The decision came after a general meeting of the Board of Directors according to a statement from national broadcaster TVR in the Romanian press.
It cited “financial constraints” as the main reason for pulling out.
At the end of 2023, Romania received a postponement from the EBU about their participation in Eurovision 2024.
TVR failed to pay the participation fee before the initial deadline, but was given an extension.
In a statement, TVR said:
“Financial constraints and the desire to represent Romania at a high level are the reasons why the Board of Directors has decided that TVR will not participate in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC).
The decision was made in today’s meeting …with 5 votes “for,” 4 “abstentions,” and 4 “against.”
The Board of Directors (also) approved the budget for SRTv (Romanian Television Society) in 2024, which does not include sufficient funds to guarantee Romania’s participation according to the increasingly high standards of the international competition.
This year, in addition to established productions, TVR is allocating substantial resources for other …productions and projects. Among them: broadcasting the Summer Olympic Games from Paris, continuing the process of upgrading – automating the broadcast of SRTv channels, investments in the news production system, continuing investments in the new TVR Craiova headquarters, and other long-postponed modernization projects.
Eurovision 2024 will take place in the city of Malmö, Sweden after Sweden won the 2023 Eurovision.
It said that Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, andr North Macedonia, had in the past decided not to participate in Eurovision.
Romania last qualified for the Eurovision grand final in 2022, when Andrei Ursu (WRS) represented the country.
