For information on the summit currently taking place, see 38th G8 summit.

Group of Eight

Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper France President François Hollande Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel Italy Prime Minister Mario Monti Japan Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda Russia President Vladimir Putin United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron United States of America President Barack Obama President of the G8 for 2012 Also represented European Union Council President Herman Van Rompuy Commission President José Manuel Barroso

The Group of Eight (G8) is a forum for the governments of eight large economies. (It excludes some members of the actual eight largest, such as China, Brazil and India). The forum originated with a 1975 summit hosted by France that brought together representatives of six governments: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, thus leading to the name Group of Six or G6. The summit became known as the Group of Seven or G7 the following year with the addition of Canada. In 1997, Russia was added to group which then became known as the G8.^[1] The European Union is represented within the G8 but cannot host or chair summits.^[2]

"G8" can refer to the member states in aggregate or to the annual summit meeting of the G8 heads of government. The former term, G6, is now frequently applied to the six most populous countries within the European Union. G8 ministers also meet throughout the year, such as the G7/8 finance ministers (who meet four times a year), G8 foreign ministers, or G8 environment ministers.

Collectively, the G8 nations comprise 51.0% of 2011 global nominal GDP and 42.5% of global GDP (PPP). Each calendar year, the responsibility of hosting the G8 rotates through the member states in the following order: France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada. The holder of the presidency sets the agenda, hosts the summit for that year, and determines which ministerial meetings will take place. Lately, both France and the United Kingdom have expressed a desire to expand the group to include five developing countries, referred to as the Outreach Five (O5) or the Plus Five: Brazil, People's Republic of China, India, Mexico, and South Africa. These countries have participated as guests in previous meetings, which are sometimes called G8+5.

With the G-20 major economies growing in stature since the 2008 Washington summit, world leaders from the group announced at their Pittsburgh summit on September 25, 2009, that the group will replace the G8 as the main economic council of wealthy nations.^[3][4]

History[link]

At the 34th G8 Summit at Toyako, Hokkaido, formal photo during Tanabata matsuri event for world leaders – Silvio Berlusconi (Italy), Dmitry Medvedev (Russia), Angela Merkel (Germany), Gordon Brown (UK), Yasuo Fukuda (Japan), George W. Bush (U.S.), Stephen Harper (Canada), Nicolas Sarkozy (France), José Barroso (EU) – July 7, 2008.

The concept of a forum for the world's major industrialized democracies emerged following the 1973 oil crisis. In 1974, a series of meetings in the library of the White House in Washington, D.C. was known as the "Library Group".^[5] This was an informal gathering of senior financial officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan and France.^[6] In 1975, French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing invited the heads of government from West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States to a summit in Château de Rambouillet. The six leaders agreed to an annual meeting organized under a rotating presidency, forming the Group of Six (G6). The following year, Canada joined the group at the behest of Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and U.S. President Gerald Ford^[7] and the group became the Group of Seven (G7). The European Union is represented by the President of the European Commission and the leader of the country that holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The President of the European Commission has attended all meetings since it was first invited by the United Kingdom in 1977^[8] and the Council President now also regularly attends.

Following 1994's G7 summit in Naples, Russian officials held separate meetings with leaders of the G7 after the group's summits. This informal arrangement was dubbed the Political 8 (P8) – or, colloquially, the G7+1. At the invitation of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair and President of the United States Bill Clinton,^[9] Russia formally joined the group in 1997, resulting in the Group of Eight, or G8.

Food[link]

A major focus of the G8 since 2009 has been the global supply of food.^[10] At the 2009 L'Aquila summit, the G8's members promised to contribute $20 billion to the issue over three years.^[11] Since then, only 22% of the promised funds have been delivered.^[12]

At the 2012 summit, President Obama plans to ask G8 leaders to adopt a policy that would privatize global food investment.^[13][14]

Structure and activities[link]

Leaders of the G8 on 7 June 2007, in Heiligendamm, Germany

By design, the G8 deliberately lacks an administrative structure like those for international organizations, such as the United Nations or the World Bank. The group does not have a permanent secretariat, or offices for its members.

The presidency of the group rotates annually among the member countries, with each new term beginning on 1 January of the year. The country holding the presidency is responsible for planning and hosting a series of ministerial-level meetings, leading up to a mid-year summit attended by the heads of government. The president of the European Commission participates as an equal in all summit events.^[15]

The ministerial meetings bring together ministers responsible for various portfolios to discuss issues of mutual or global concern. The range of topics include health, law enforcement, labor, economic and social development, energy, environment, foreign affairs, justice and interior, terrorism, and trade. There are also a separate set of meetings known as the G8+5, created during the 2005 Gleneagles, Scotland summit, that is attended by finance and energy ministers from all eight member countries in addition to the five "outreach countries" which are also known as the Group of Five — Brazil, People's Republic of China, India, Mexico, and South Africa.^[16]

In June 2005, justice ministers and interior ministers from the G8 countries agreed to launch an international database on pedophiles.^[17] The G8 officials also agreed to pool data on terrorism, subject to restrictions by privacy and security laws in individual countries.^[18]

Global energy[link]

G8 leaders confer during the 2009 summit in L'Aquila (Abruzzo, Italy).

At the Heiligendamm Summit in 2007, the G8 acknowledged a proposal from the EU for a worldwide initiative on efficient energy use. They agreed to explore, along with the International Energy Agency, the most effective means to promote energy efficiency internationally. A year later, on 8 June 2008, the G8 along with China, India, South Korea and the European Community established the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation, at the Energy Ministerial meeting hosted by Japan holding 2008 G8 Presidency, in Aomori.^[19]

G8 Finance Ministers, whilst in preparation for the 34th Summit of the G8 Heads of State and Government in Toyako, Hokkaido, met on the 13 and 14 June 2008, in Osaka, Japan. They agreed to the “G8 Action Plan for Climate Change to Enhance the Engagement of Private and Public Financial Institutions.” In closing, Ministers supported the launch of new Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) by the World Bank, which will help existing efforts until a new framework under the UNFCCC is implemented after 2012.^[20]

Annual summit[link]

The annual G8 leaders summit is attended by the heads of government.^[21] The member country holding the G8 presidency is responsible for organizing and hosting the year's summit.

The serial annual summits can be parsed chronologically in arguably distinct ways, including as the sequence of host countries for the summits has recurred over time, series, etc.^[22]

	Date	Host country	Host leader	Location held	Website	Notes
1st	November 15–17, 1975	France	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	Rambouillet (Castle of Rambouillet)		G6 Summit
2nd	June 27–28, 1976	United States	Gerald R. Ford	Dorado, Puerto Rico[23]		Also called "Rambouillet II;" Canada joins the group, forming the G7[23]
3rd	May 7–8, 1977	United Kingdom	James Callaghan	London		President of the European Commission is invited to join the annual G-7 summits
4th	July 16–17, 1978	West Germany	Helmut Schmidt	Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia
5th	June 28–29, 1979	Japan	Masayoshi Ōhira	Tokyo
6th	June 22–23, 1980	Italy	Francesco Cossiga	Venice
7th	July 20–21, 1981	Canada	Pierre E. Trudeau	Montebello, Quebec
8th	June 4–6, 1982	France	François Mitterrand	Versailles
9th	May 28–30, 1983	United States	Ronald Reagan	Williamsburg, Virginia
10th	June 7–9, 1984	United Kingdom	Margaret Thatcher	London
11th	May 2–4, 1985	West Germany	Helmut Kohl	Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia
12th	May 4–6, 1986	Japan	Yasuhiro Nakasone	Tokyo
13th	June 8–10, 1987	Italy	Amintore Fanfani	Venice
14th	June 19–21, 1988	Canada	Brian Mulroney	Toronto
15th	July 14–16, 1989	France	François Mitterrand	Paris
16th	July 9–11, 1990	United States	George H. W. Bush	Houston, Texas
17th	July 15–17, 1991	United Kingdom	John Major	London
18th	July 6–8, 1992	Germany	Helmut Kohl	Munich, Bavaria
19th	July 7–9, 1993	Japan	Kiichi Miyazawa	Tokyo
20th	July 8–10, 1994	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Naples
21st	June 15–17, 1995	Canada	Jean Chrétien	Halifax, Nova Scotia	[24]
22nd	June 27–29, 1996	France	Jacques Chirac	Lyon		International organizations' debut to G8 Summits periodically. The invited ones here were: United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.[25]
23rd	June 20–22, 1997	United States	Bill Clinton	Denver, Colorado	[26]	Russia joins the group, forming G8
24th	May 15–17, 1998	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	Birmingham	[27]
25th	June 18–20, 1999	Germany	Gerhard Schröder	Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia	[28]	First Summit of the G-20 major economies at Berlin
26th	July 21–23, 2000	Japan	Yoshiro Mori	Nago, Okinawa	[29]	Formation of the G8+5 starts, when South Africa was invited. Until the 38th G8 summit in 2012, it has been invited to the Summit annually without interruption. Also, with permission from a G8 leader, other nations were invited to the Summit on a periodical basis for the first time. Nigeria, Algeria and Senegal accepted their invitations here. The World Health Organization was also invited for the first time, too.[25]
27th	July 20–22, 2001	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Genoa	[30]	Leaders from Bangladesh, Mali and El Salvador accepted their invitations here.[25] Demonstrator Carlo Giuliani is shot and killed by police during a violent demonstration. One of the largest and most violent anti-globalization movement protests occurred for the 27th G8 summit.[31] Following those events and the September 11 attacks two months later in 2001, the G8 have met at more remote locations.
28th	June 26–27, 2002	Canada	Jean Chrétien	Kananaskis, Alberta	[32]	Russia gains permission to officially host a G8 Summit.
29th	June 2–3, 2003	France	Jacques Chirac	Évian-les-Bains	[2]	The G8+5 was unofficially made, when China, India, Brazil, and Mexico were invited to this Summit for the first time. South Africa has joined the G8 Summit, since 2000, until the 2012 edition. Other first-time nations that were invited by the French president included: Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Switzerland.[25]
30th	June 8–10, 2004	United States	George W. Bush	Sea Island, Georgia	[33]	A record number of leaders from 12 different nations accepted their invitations here. Amongst a couple of veteran nations, the others were: Ghana, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen and Uganda.[25] Also, the state funeral of former president Ronald Reagan took place in Washington during the summit.
31st	July 6–8, 2005	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	Gleneagles	[34]	The G8+5 was officially formed. On the second day of the meeting, suicide bombers killed 52 people on the London Underground and a bus. Nations that were invited for the first time were Ethiopia and Tanzania. The African Union and the International Energy Agency made their debut here.[25] During the 31st G8 summit in United Kingdom, 225,000 people took to the streets of Edinburgh as part of the Make Poverty History campaign calling for Trade Justice, Debt Relief and Better Aid. Numerous other demonstrations also took place challenging the legitimacy of the G8.[35]
32nd	July 15–17, 2006	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Strelna, St. Petersburg	[3]	First G8 Summit on Russian soil. Also, the International Atomic Energy Agency and UNESCO made their debut here.[25]
33rd	June 6–8, 2007	Germany	Angela Merkel	Heiligendamm, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	[4]	Seven different international organizations accepted their invitations to this Summit. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Commonwealth of Independent States made their debut here.[25]
34th	July 7–9, 2008	Japan	Yasuo Fukuda	Toyako (Lake Toya), Hokkaido	[36]	Nations that accepted their G8 Summit invitations for the first time are: Australia, Indonesia and South Korea.[25]
35th	July 8–10, 2009	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	L'Aquila, Abruzzo	[5]	This G8 Summit was originally planned to be in La Maddalena (Sardinia), but was moved to L'Aquila as a way of showing Prime Minister Berlusconi's desire to help the region in and around L'Aquila after the earthquake that hit the area on the April 6th, 2009. Nations that accepted their invitations for the first time were: Angola, Denmark, Netherlands and Spain.[37] A record of TEN (10) international organizations were represented in this G8 Summit. For the first time, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme, and the International Labour Organization accepted their invitations.[38]
36th	June 25–26, 2010[39]	Canada	Stephen Harper	Huntsville, Ontario[40]	[41]	Malawi, Colombia, Haiti, and Jamaica accepted their invitations for the first time.[42]
37th	May 26–27, 2011	France	Nicolas Sarkozy	Deauville,[43][44] Basse-Normandie	[6]	Guinea, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire and Tunisia accepted their invitations for the first time. Also, the League of Arab States made its debut to the meeting.[45]
38th	May 18–19, 2012	United States	Barack Obama	Camp David[46]	[7]	The summit was originally planned for Chicago, along with the NATO summit, but it was announced officially on March 5, 2012, that the G8 summit will be held at the more private location of Camp David and at one day earlier than previously scheduled.[47] Also, this is the first G8 summit, in which one of the core leaders (Vladimir Putin) declined to participate because of speculative reasons. This G8 summit concentrated on the core leaders only; no non-G8 leaders or international organizations were invited.
39th	2013	United Kingdom	David Cameron	TBD		Britain hopes to refocus the event, possibly by discussing a single issue such as the Middle East and inviting key players, such as Turkey or Israel. David Cameron is critical of the value and cost of the G8 if there is too much focus on communiqués as opposed to building trust between world leaders. He has been looking at the idea of attaching the G8 summit to another event such as the UN general assembly.[48]
40th	2014	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Skolkovo[49]

The leaders of the G8 at 36th G8 Summit in Huntsville, Ontario

Member facts[link]

G8-countries represent...

• 8 of 13 top-ranked leading export countries.^[50]
• 6 of 10 top-ranked countries with the largest gold reserves (USA, Germany, Italy, France, Russia and Japan.)
• 6 of 10 largest major stock exchanges by traded value and market capitalization
• 8 of 10 top-ranked economies (by nominal GDP) of the world, according to latest (2011 data) International Monetary Fund's statistics.
• 5 of 20 top-ranked countries generating a nominal GDP per capita above US$40,000 (Canada, USA, Japan, France, Germany), from the same 2011 IMF data.
• 5 countries with a sovereign wealth fund, administered by either a national or a state/provincial government (Russia, USA, France, Canada, Italy).^[51]
• 8 of 30 top-ranked nations with large amounts of foreign-exchange reserves in their central banks
• 4 out of 9 countries having nuclear weapons (France, Russia, UK, USA),^[52][53]
• 3 additional countries that have the capability to rapidly produce nuclear warheads (Canada, Germany, Japan)
• 3 countries that have nuclear weapons sharing programs (Canada, Germany, Italy).^[54][55][56]
• 3 of the world's top-10 largest oil producers (Russia, USA and Canada)
• 2 countries with the third and eighth largest oil reserves (Canada and Russia respectively) are in the G8
• 7 of the 9 largest nuclear energy producers (USA, France, Japan, Russia, Germany, Canada, UK), even though Germany will wean itself from nuclear power by 2022.^[57] As with Japan, it shut down all of its nuclear reactors because of the earthquake in 2011; the first time the nation has gone nuclear-free since 1970.^[58]
• the 7 largest donors to the UN budget for the 2011 annual fiscal year (U.S., Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada.)

All countries are among the "trillion dollar club of nations". Until 1998 this "club" consisted only of G8-members. Today 14 out of 15 "trillion dollar club" members are members of the G20 members.
All of the G8 and 12 out of 13 G8+5-countries (minus South Africa) are among the 20 top-ranked nations by the amount of voting power and special drawing rights (SDRs) in the IMF organization.

Cumulative influence of member nations[link]

Stephen Harper and Nicolas Sarkozy, the 36th and 37th chairs of the G8 Summit

Together the eight countries making up the G8 represent about 14% of the world population, but they represent about 60% of the Gross World Product^[59] as measured by gross domestic product, all eight nations being within the top 12 countries according to the CIA World Factbook. (see the CIA World Factbook column in List of countries by GDP (nominal)), the majority of global military power (seven are in the top 8 nations for military expenditure^[60]), and almost all of the world's active nuclear weapons.^[61] In 2007, the combined G8 military spending was US$850 billion. This is 72% of the world's total military expenditures. (see List of countries and federations by military expenditures) Four of the G8 members, the United Kingdom, United States, France and Russia, together account for 96–99% of the world's nuclear weapons.^[62] (see List of states with nuclear weapons)

Criticism[link]

20 July 2001, 27th G8 summit in Genoa, Italy: Protesters burn a police vehicle which was abandoned by police during a clash with protesters.

Some criticism centres on the assertion that members of G8 do not do enough to help global problems such as debt, global warming and the AIDS epidemic—due to strict medicine patent policy and other issues related to globalization. In Unravelling Global Apartheid, the political analysis Titus Alexander described the G7, as it then was, as the 'cabinet' of global minority rule, with a coordinating role in world affairs ^[63]

The conservative Heritage Foundation has criticized the G8 for advocating food security without making room for economic freedom.^[64]

Decline[link]

The G8's relevance is unclear.^[65] Critics argue that the G8 has now become unrepresentative of the world's most powerful economies. In particular, China has surpassed every economy except the United States,^[66] while Brazil has surpassed Canada, Italy and UK (according to the IMF). India is already larger than Brazil, and according to the International Monetary Fund and the CIA World Factbook, has surpassed Japan in terms of Purchasing Power Parity.

With Vladimir Putin not attending the 2012 G8 summit at Camp David, there is credence that the summit has generally outlived its usefulness, as a viable international gathering of foreign leaders.^[67] As a result of that decision, one Foreign Policy magazine contributor stated that Russia should be kicked out of the G8 altogether.^[68][69] However, another FP contributor commented that the G8 is still relevant, despite the increasing international power and prestige of the G-20 major economies leaders' summit.^[70]

See also[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2000). Hanging in There: The G7 and G8 Summit in Maturity and Renewal. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. 10-ISBN 0-7546-1185-X; 13-ISBN 978-0-7546-1185-1; OCLC 43186692
• Haas, P.M. (1992). "Introduction. Epistemic communities and international policy coordination," International Organization 46,1:1–35.
• Hajnal, Peter I. (1999). The G8 system and the G20 : Evolution, Role and Documentation. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. 13-ISBN 9780754645504/13-ISBN 0754645509; OCLC 277231920
• Kokotsis, Eleonore. (1999). Keeping International Commitments: Compliance, Credibility, and the G7, 1988–1995. New York: Garland Publishing. 10-ISBN 0815333323/13-ISBN 9780815333326; OCLC 40460131
• Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. 10-ISBN 0415164869/10-ISBN 9780415164863; 13-ISBN 978-0-203-45085-7;10-ISBN 0-203-45085-X; OCLC 39013643

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: G8

Wikinews has news related to: G8

• The Canadian Government's G8 Web Site (in English)
• G8 Information Centre, G8 Research Group, University of Toronto
• "2010 is a date with fate for G8", Oxfam International Blogs
• "Special Report: G8", Guardian Unlimited
• "Profile: G8", BBC News
• "We are deeply concerned. Again", New Statesman, 4 July 2005, —G8 development concerns since 1977
• G8 Information Centre Finance Ministers Meetings
• "G8: Cooking the books won’t feed anyone", Oxfam International
• "Dear G8 Leaders, don’t lie about your aid", Oxfam International Blogs
• "Wait, the G-8 still exists?", Foreign Policy Magazine
• "Is this the last G-8 summit meeting?", Foreign Policy Magazine
• http://www.un.org/french/pubs/chronique/2006/numero1/0106p54.htm "The Group of Eight, ECOSOC and the Constitutional Paradox"