G8

"Group of Eight" redirects here. For the Australian league of universities, see Group of Eight (Australian universities). For other uses, see G8 (disambiguation) and G7 (disambiguation).

: Prime Minister Stephen Harper

: President Jacques Chirac

: Chancellor Angela Merkel

: Prime Minister Romano Prodi

: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi

: President Vladimir Putin (chair)

: Prime Minister Tony Blair

: President George W. Bush

Current G8 Leaders

The Group of Eight (G8) consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, these countries represent about 65% of the world economy ^*. The hallmark of the G8 is an annual political summit meeting of the heads of government with international officials, though there are numerous subsidiary meetings and policy research.

The Presidency of the group rotates every year. For 2006 it is held by Russia, and a 2006 summit of all G8 leaders is being held in Saint Petersburg from July 15 to July 17 at the Palace of Congresses.

Background and history

The G8 has its roots in the 1973 oil crisis and subsequent global recession. These troubles led the United States to form the Library Group, a gathering of senior financial officials from the United States, Europe, and Japan, to discuss the economic issues.

In 1975, French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing invited the heads of state of six major industralized democracies to a summit in Rambouillet and proposed regular meetings. The participants agreed to an annual meeting organized under a rotating presidency, forming what was dubbed the Group of Six (G6) consisting of France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. At the subsequent annual summit in Puerto Rico, it became the Group of Seven (G7) when Canada joined at the behest of U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1976. The European Union has attended meetings since it was first invited by the United Kingdom in 1977.

Participation of Russia and formation of the G8

In 1991, following the end of the Cold War, the USSR (now Russia) began meeting with the G7 after the main summit. This group became known as the P8 (Political 8), or colloquially the "G7 plus 1", starting with the 1994 Naples summit. Russia was allowed to participate more fully beginning in the 1997 political summit, marking the creation of the Group of Eight or G8. Russia was not included in the meeting of financial officials as it is not a significant economic power; "G7" now refers specifically to the meeting of the respective Finance Ministers and Governors of the Central Banks.

At the initiative of then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, "Group of Seven" became the "Group of Eight," with Russia attending most sessions. This was a gesture of appreciation from President Clinton to then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin for pursuing economic reforms, and for their neutrality with respect to the eastward expansion of NATO.

On February 18, 2005, U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and John McCain (R-AZ) called for Russia to be suspended from the G8 until democratic and political freedoms are ensured by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Structure and activities

The G8 is not supported by a transnational administration, unlike institutions such as the United Nations or World Bank. The presidency of the Group rotates among the member states annually, with the new president assuming his or her position on 1 January. The country holding the presidency hosts a series of ministerial-level meetings leading up to a mid-year three-day summit with the heads of government, and is responsible for the safety of the participants.

The ministerial meetings bring together ministers in topics such as health, law enforcement, labour, development, energy, environment, foreign affairs, justice and interior, terrorism and trade to discuss issues of mutual or global concern. The best known of these is the G-7, which now refers specifically to the annual meeting of the financial ministers of the G-8 minus Russia, as well as officials from the European Community. However, there also is a briefer "G8+5" meeting for the finance ministers of the full G-8, as well as the People's Republic of China, Mexico, India, Brazil, and South Africa.

Under the auspices of G7 a special program for the implementation of the Information Society was established in 1994. The Global Information Society held meetings February 25 to February 26 in 1995 in Brussels and May 13 to May 15 in 1996 in South Africa.

In June 2005 the G8 Justice and Interior ministers agreed to launch an international database on pedophiles, expected to be set up by the end of the year. Other countries may join later.The G8 also agreed to pool data on terrorism, subject to the restrictions of the various countries' privacy and security laws. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1509218,00.html

In June 2005 the national science academies of the G8 nations - and Brazil, the People's Republic of China and India, three of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the developing world, signed a statement on the global response to climate change. The statement stresses that the scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action ^*, and explicitly endorsed the IPCC consensus.

On July 16, 2006, United States President George W. Bush was recorded by an open microphone at the G8 summit, making use of an expletive; as he explained to United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair what he considered the irony of the Israeli/Lebanese crisis, stating that "...see the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s--- and it’s over." ^*

Criticism

Since the agenda of G8 is usually about controversial global issues, critics often refer to the G8 as an unofficial "world government." The annual summits are often the focus of anti-globalization movement protests, notably at the 27th G8 summit in Genoa in 2001.

Critics assert that members of G8 are responsible for global issues such as global warming due to carbon dioxide emission, poverty in Africa and developing countries due to debt crisis and unfair trading policy, the AIDS problem due to strict medicine patent policy and other problems that are related to globalization.

The debate drives discussions on property rights, global economics, international politics, morality and many other aspects. For example, some defenders believe that patent laws are essential property rights that encourage medical discovery. On the other hand, some critics say that parallel importation is a way out. Some others believe that African poverty is due to the rampant government corruption on that continent while some critics say it is a problem of unfair international trading. Most debate is related to discussions on globalization.

Pressure has also been put on G8 leaders to take responsibility to combat problems they are criticized of creating. For example, Bob Geldof organized Live 8, a series of concerts on July 2 and July 6, 2005 held worldwide and intended to promote global awareness, to encourage G8 leaders to "Make Poverty History." The concerts were timed to coincide with the 31st G8 summit. Organizers of the concert series have also proposed that G8 member nations adjust their national budgets to allow for 0.7% to go towards foreign aid as outlined in Agenda 21 of the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992.

Terrorism

The opening day of the 2005 G8 Summit in Scotland, 7 July, 2005, was accompanied by a synchronized series of bombings in the London Underground and in a London double-decker bus that claimed more than 50 lives and wounded hundreds more. An organization calling themselves the "Secret Group of Al Qaeda's Jihad in Europe" claimed credit for the attacks. The attacks are assumed to be in retaliation for the UK's participation in military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, although terrorism has been perpetrated against western states by Islamic fundamentalists prior to those actions. The global attention focused on the G8 summit was presumably leveraged by the terrorists for maximum symbolic effect. The strike also followed abruptly after the International Olympic Committee announced London as the site of the 2012 Olympic Games.

Prime Minister Tony Blair denounced the attacks as 'barbaric', and returned to London to oversee the situation, but announced that the business of the summit would continue.

Past G6/7/8 summits

The location of the summit meetings rotate annually among member countries in the following order: France, United States of America, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, (also the order in which each nation joined the Group, excluding Russia who joined last). Thousands of reporters descend on the summit site to cover the world's most powerful leaders.

Future summits

Number	Date	Country	Place
33rd	2007	Germany	Heiligendamm
34th	2008	Japan
35th	2009	Italy
36th	2010	Canada
37th	2011	France
38th	2012	United States
39th	2013	United Kingdom

References

External links

Governments

History of the G8 - UK government site
Government of Canada - G8 official Canadian government site
10 Downing Street - G8 and EU Presidencies official United Kingdom government site
USINFO - Aid To Africa Site official United States Department of State site
University of Toronto - G8 Information Centre research group
Guardian Unlimited - Special Report: G8
BBC News - Profile: G8
Red Pepper G8 Special: articles and resources
Kremlin.ru - Government site of Russia Kremlin.ru (english)
Italian Government (Italian, English)
German Government (Deutsch, English, français)

Comment

New Statesman, 4 July 2005, "We are deeply concerned. Again" - G8 development concerns since 1977
Medish, Mark. "Russia — Odd Man Out in the G-8", The Globalist, 24 February 2006.
G8 Research Group "G8 Live" Live news and blogs from St. Petersburg summit by University of Toronto student members of the G8 Research Group

Earlier G8 Summit Activism

Current and Future G8 Summit Activism

G8 | International organizations | G8 nations

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