Romania Faces Eurovision Exit over ?10m Debt

Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said on Monday that he was looking for ways to prevent his country's exclusion from Eurovision 2016 after the public broadcaster, TVR, announced that it owed the European Broadcasting Union , EBU, which runs the annual contest, over 10 million euros.

"We will have a discussion and we'll find a solution," Ciolos said.

TVR made its admission on Saturday and warned that Romania might not be able to participate in the glitzy song contest this year.

"Representatives of EBU - the world's largest public broadcasters' association - have verbally warned TVR's representatives that, because of the debts accumulated in the past eight years, they will move to the next stage of sanctions," TVR said in a statement.

"Thus Romania risks not being accepted onto the Eurovision stage and not receiving the satellite signal to broadcast the contest," it said.

According to TVR, despite paying the 2016 participation fee on time and already paying a part of its debts - an instalment of 250,000 euros was paid in January - it could not convince the EBU that it would make the full payment.

The EBU has asked the state to guarantee the debt will be paid, TVR said.

The debt-laden public broadcaster also warned that if it does not get state support, it might not be able to screen other major events, such as this year's European football championship and the 2016 Rio Olympics.

"The EBU is currently waiting for the point of view of those [state institutions] that it has addressed in recent months, such as parliament, the government, and the ministry of finance," the TVR statement said.

Eurovision Romania producer Iuliana Marciuc urged the authorities to step in.

"State institutions should give a...