The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has warned Ukraine’s public broadcaster UA:PBC to “stick to the timeline” following the abrupt resignation last week of 21 members of the company’s senior Eurovision team, including two executive producers, the event manager and head of security. While it thanked the departing team members for their work so far, the EBU, which founded the popular pan–European contest in 1956, said every effort must now be made to ensure the show goes on as planned in Kiev in May despite what it described as “staffing matters”. “The team have been instrumental in the planning for this year’s Eurovision song contest and we thank them for their hard work

“We have reiterated to UA:PBC the importance of a speedy and efficient implementation of plans already agreed, despite staff changes, and that we stick to the timeline and milestones that have been established and approved by the reference group to ensure a successful contest in May.”

Among those who quit were executive producers Oleksandr Kharebin and Victoria Romanova and commercial director Iryna Asman, saying they felt sidelined by the appointment of a new event co-ordinator and worried by a lack of transparency in decision-making. They also said a decision to increase the event's budget to 29 million euros from 22 million euros would deprive Ukraine's state broadcaster of 7-8 million euros of profit. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The 2017 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Kiev, after Ukrainian singer Jamala won last year's competition

The Eurovision Song Contest has hit a major road bump, after 21 top level staff organising the event resigned.
Twenty-one organizers for the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, Ukraine, resign en masse after claiming they were completely blocked from making decisions about the show. Despite the setback, the European Broadcasting Union insists that the event must go on.