Bosnia and Herzegovina withdrew from Eurovision in 2017 due to financial debt to the European Broadcasting Union. It has now been revealed that the debt has grown, and the country is very far from returning to the competition.

The Bosnian national broadcaster BHRT announced a few months ago that the country, which has not participated in the contest for almost a decade, will also be absent from Eurovision 2025 to be held in Switzerland. The reason for the country’s absence from Eurovision is due to a financial debt owed by BHRT to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Despite calls for the country to return to the competition, it appears that the national broadcaster has not changed its conduct, and its debt to the EBU has even increased.

The Staggering Debt and Its Implications

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s debt to the European Broadcasting Union now stands at about 10 million euros, as revealed by Lejla Babović, former head of the Bosnian Eurovision delegation, while participating in the Montenegrin Eurovision national selection as part of the judging panel that included many participants from former Yugoslav countries. Babović shared her thoughts on the process that needs to happen for Bosnia to return to the competition and compared Bosnia to Montenegro, which also withdrew in the past due to financial difficulties.

She declared: “The state stands behind the Public service of Montenegro, and will help it to recover and strengthen itself. What I saw last night reminds me of the show programs that we watch in the West, and the show that is seen at the Eurovision Song Contest itself. It pains me that twenty years ago we were able to organize all that without any problems, and today… Just look at the attitude of the state and the authorities towards the public broadcaster of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They swear by the European path, and the issue of the functioning of the public broadcaster is one of the chapters on the path to the European Union.”

The Balkans, where Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro are located, is considered the least developed region in Europe and one of the poorest. Even in the poor Balkan countries, the importance of public broadcasting is understood, and it receives a budget that allows it to exist with dignity. The “European path” Babović speaks of is essentially the democratic and free path that has been engraved on the flag of the European Union since its establishment, and outlines the way for most of the world’s democratic countries today