The Finnish government has pledged 4 million euros to the Eurovision project in Finland next year, as was reported earlier. The budget proposal is currently being debated by the Finnish Parliament.

Some cultural and art institutions are unhappy about the money they are receiving, and some sources have blamed that the money given to Eurovision has eaten into the state subsidies to other cultural institutions. www.hs.fi Minna Sirniö (MP) is the president of theatre and media workers union, and says that she is all for promoting Finnish culture through Eurovision, but at the same time she would have wanted to see more money given to culture.

The Ministry of Education however dismisses these claims, and says that the money for Eurovision comes from previously unused money from lottery funds, that have been accumulated over several years. The Director General for Ministry of Education Riitta Kaivosoja explains, that more money had to be given to libraries this year, and thus less lottery funds were available to other art and cultural institutions. www.hs.fi The budget debate will be affected by the upcoming elections in Finland, and MPs have lodged a record amount of comments to the government's budget proposal. It is very rare however, that any major changes will be made during parliamentary debate of the budget.www.hs.fi

The whole budget of Eurovision 2007 was estimated by YLE to 13 million euros earlier this year.

Photo: Juha Repo