New Eurovision?

Toine Manders, a Dutch Libertarian politician and member of the European Parliament is already working for the last six months to create a new E.U. song contest within the borders of the European Community.
Manders idea, which received lots of positive reactions from EU parliament colleague members is to create a new festival that will be taking place every year on the 9th of May when all European countries celebrate the “Day of Europe”.
The annual song contest is about to include all the 27 European countries. The first show, if all comes to a happy end, is about to take place in 2008 with a real jury and with a real orchestra.
If a real jury and orchestra will be used for the new EU festival and if Manders succeeds then we may see Italy back in the new contest because one of the reasons that Italy left from the Eurovision Song Contest was the televoting process.
Manders, is already under discussion with several European TV channels. Specifically, on Friday he will have a meeting with RTL, the European TV channel which broadcasts in 19 of the 27 EU countries and has already expressed its interest about his idea. Next week he also has an appointment with the European Commissioner of communication Margot Wallstrom.Manders is also working on another idea, to organize an annual EU soccer event.