Is Liechtenstein an EBU Member?

  Liechtenstein – The little principality between Austria and Switzerland has tried to participate at the Eurovision Song Contest a couple of times, but the fact that they did not have a television station in the EBU excluded them from the competition. In the last few years the private broadcaster 1FLTV has applied for membership of the EBU but was rejected at least once. Now two documents of the EBU have appeared, dated March and October 2011 (pdf), that list Liechtenstein among the active members of the EBU. However, the box naming the broadcaster, which is filled for all other countries, is empty in Liechtenstein’s case.

If this should actually be the case, Liechtenstein would be eligible to enter the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Last year the director of 1FLTV, Mr. Kölbel had already expressed his wish to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest with his new television channel. The EBU had orally stated their consent, but the financial burden seemed to be too big for the little channel and thus Kölbel said a participation depended on whether his channel would receive money from the government. A request to get financial aid from Liechtenstein’s government was turned down last summer. A participation is thus still very unlikely, but if Liechtenstein actually is an active EBU member at least not completely out of the question.

We have contacted the EBU to get a confirmation on this.

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