After missing Eurovision in 2016 due to financial debts owed to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Romania announced on Thursday that they will be back in Kiev in 2017. Television Romania (TVR) made the announcement in a Facebook post delighting Eurovision fans.

At the 11th hour in 2016 Romania’s entry, Ovidiu Anton was disqualified from competing in the song contest for 2016. That was due to TVR owing extensive debts to the EBU, and being unable to pay them off ahead of the competition: which requires a member be ‘in good standing’.

Since then TVR and the EBU have settled their financial disagreements, with TVR repaying their debts and the EBU welcoming them back to membership. Part of that return has included free consultancy work from EBU for TVR in an effort to avoid the issues happening further again.

There are a remaining 10-million euros to be paid on the debt and TVR announced as part of their Eurovision announcement that they will be paying that over three years. TVR seems to have undergone something of a renaissance after the budget crisis which saw them disqualified in 2016.

This announcement did not contain any details on how a national selection would work for Romania, but that they will competing at all reflects a phenomenal turnaround for TVR. Historically TVR has gone with a selection show, but given that 2016 saw them disqualified due to financial issues, they could very well go with an internal selection for financial reasons.

Source: axs.com