The five countries that are part of the "Big Five", along with the host of the contest, automatically qualify for a place in the final. But Germany is both the host of the 2011 edition and a member from the "Big Five". To answer this question of if a country will qualify directly for the final (maybe the second of the 2010 Contest), the EBU held a meeting in Belgrade (Serbia). And it was decided that the existing rules will remain in place, and that the number of participants in the final will simply decreased from twenty-five to twenty-four. On 31 December 2010, the EBU published the official list of the participants for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest and which stated the return of Italy, Austria, San Marino and Hungary. And thanks to the return of Italy twenty-fiv countries will participate for the final of the 2011 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.