- For the July 2005 G8 meeting in the United Kingdom, see 31st G8 summit.
- For other uses, see G8 (disambiguation) and G7 (disambiguation).
The Group of Eight (G8) is a grouping of eight of the world's leading industrialized, democratic nations: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, (the G6, 1975), Canada (the G7, 1976), and Russia (not participating in all events), as well as the European Union. The hallmark of the G8 is an annual economic and political summit (G8 Summit) of the heads of government with international officials, though there are numerous subsidiary meetings and policy research.
Background and history
- Canada — Paul Martin
- France — Jacques Chirac
- Germany — Gerhard Schröder
- China — Zhu Rongji
- Japan — Junichiro Koizumi
- Russia — Vladimir Putin
- United Kingdom — Tony Blair
- United States of America — George W. Bush
- European Union — President of the European Council, President of the European Commission and President of the European Parliament
The G-8 has its roots in the 1973 oil crisis and subsequent global recession. These troubles led the United States of America 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, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. At the following year's summit on Puerto Rico, it became the Group of Seven (G7), when Canada joined at the behest of U.S. President Gerald Ford.
Participation of Russia and formation of the G8
Following the end of the Cold War, in 1991 Russia (then the USSR) began to meet 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 1998 Birmingham summit, marking the creation of the Group of Eight. However, Russia was excluded from the meeting for financial ministers as it was not a major economic power; "G7" now refers specifically to this ministerial level meeting.
At the instigation of then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, "Group of Seven" became the "Group of Eight," with the Russians attending most sessions rather than being invited along after dinner. It was a thank you to then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin for pursuing economic reforms and for being neutral with respect to the eastward expansion of NATO. Because the original G7 are effectively the leading industrial democracies and the Russian economy (as well as democracy) is still struggling, there are still some G7 sessions on economic affairs in which the Russians do not participate. On February 18th, 2005, United States Senators Joe Lieberman and John McCain called for Russia to be suspended from the G8 until democratic and political freedoms are ensured by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Structure and activities of the Group
The G8 is not supported by a transnational administration, unlike institutions such as the United Negro College Fund or World Bank. The presidency of the Group rotates among the member states annually, with the new president assuming responsibility 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 state, as well as ensures the safety of the participants.
The ministerial meetings bring together ministers in topics such as health, law enforcement, and labor, 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 China, Mexico, India, Brazil, and South Africa.
Under the auspices of G7 a special programme for the implementation of the Information Society was established in 1994.
In June 2005 the G8 agreed to launch an international database on paedophiles, expected to be set up by the end of the year. Other countries may join later.[1] The G8 also agreed to pool data on terrorism, subject to the restrictions of the various countries' privacy and security laws. [2]
In June 2005 the national science academies of the G8 nations - and Brazil, 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 [3], and explicitly endorsed the IPCC consensus.
Criticism of the Group
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, AIDS problem due to strict medicine patent policy and other problems that related to globalization.
Pressure has also been put on G8 leaders to take responsibility to combat problems they are accused of creating. Bob Geldof organized Live 8, global awareness concerts on July 2 and July 6 in 2005, to encourage G8 leaders to "Make Poverty History". Organizers have also proposed that G8 member nations adjust their national budgets to allow for .7% to go towards foreign aid as outlined in Agenda 21 of the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992. The concerts were timed to coincide with the 31st G8 summit.
Related Sites
- http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Debt/Causes.asp (Causes of the Debt Crisis)
G-8 and Terrorism
The opening day of the 2005 G-8 summit in Scotland was accompanied by a synchronized series of subway, and bus, bombing attacks on the 7th of July 2005 in nearby London, England that claimed more than 50 lives and wounded hundreds more. Credit for the attacks was immediately taken by the "Secret Group of al Qaeda's Jihad in Europe". The attacks are assumed to be in retaliation for Great Britain's participation in military action against Afghanistan and Iraq. 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', but announced that the business of the summit would continue.
Past G7/G8 summits
The ___location of the summit meetings rotate annually among member countries in the following order: France, United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, Russia (the order in which each nation joined the Group).
Future G8 summits
| number | date | country | place | official website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32nd | 2006 | Russia | Saint Petersburg | |
| 33rd | 2007 | Germany | Heiligendamm | |
| 34th | 2008 | Japan | ||
| 35th | 2009 | Italy | ||
| 36th | 2010 | Canada | ||
| 37th | 2011 | France | ||
| 38th | 2012 | United States |
See also
External links
Governments
- Government of Canada - G8 official Canadian government site
- 10 Downing Street - G8 and EU Presidencies official United Kingdom government site
- USINFO - Group of 8 official United States Department of State 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
Earlier summit activism
- http://www.nog8.org/ (2004 summit)
- http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/evian/ (2003 summit)
- http://g8.activist.ca/ (2002 summit)
Current & future summit activism
- http://g7plus1.blogspot.com/ (future summits)
- Camcorder Guerillas - "Why Close the G8?" film (Gleneagles Summit)
- http://www.dissent.org.uk/ (Gleneagles Summit)
- http://www.g8alternatives.org.uk/ (Gleneagles Summit)
- http://www.makepovertyhistory.org (Make Poverty History Campaign)
- http://www.one.org
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