CLICK HERE FOR SWEDISH ARTICLE

I’ve just been notified that the EBU will change the flag policy after the last week’s critisism from all over Europe.

This is a statement that will soon be sent out from the EBU:

”After reflection and constructive talks with several participating delegations, the EBU proposed to the Reference Group (the Eurovision Song Contest’s governing body) to take a more liberal appproach to the flag policy, which was introduced last week, and to allow national, regional, and local flags of the participants, e.g. the Welsh flag (as one of the UK singers is from Wales) and the Sami flag (as the Norwegian singer is originally from Sami heritage). This is in addition to the flags of all UN member states, the EU flag and the rainbow flag, as stipulated in the original flag policy.

The EBU also proposed to the Reference group to take a more tolerant approach to other flags, as long as the audience respects the non-political nature of the Eurovision Song Contest, and not deliberately attempts to obstruct the camera views, as requested.

The Reference Group approved the proposal.”

The Eurovision song contest event supervisor Sietse Bakker confirmed that this decision was made within the last two hours, with members of the Reference Group discussing the issue and making the decision via email.

– You gradually come to the realisation that you need a more lenient approach. Everyone in the Reference Group have followed the last days’ debate and this desision was taken in the last two hours, says Sietse Bakker.