G-8 SUMMIT

PRESENTED BY
SWATI LUTHRA
 INTRODUCTION
• The Group of Eight (G8, and formerly the G6 or Group of Six and also the G7 or Group of Seven) is a forum,
created by France in 1975, for governments of six countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the
United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976, Canada joined the group (thus creating the G7). In 1997, the
group added Russia thus becoming the G8. In addition, the European Union is represented within the G8, but
cannot host or chair.[1] "G8" can refer to the member states 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.
• 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.
 HISTORY
• 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".[4] This was an informal gathering of senior financial officials from the
United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan and France.[5
• 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[6] 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[7] 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,[8] Russia formally joined the group in 1997, resulting in the
Group of Eight, or G8.
 STR. AND ACTIVITIES
• 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. [
• 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.[10]

• In June 2005, justice ministers and interior ministers from the G8 countries agreed to launch an
international database on pedophiles.[11] The G8 officials also agreed to pool data on terrorism, subject to
restrictions by privacy and security laws in individual countries.[12]
 GLOBAL ENERGY
• 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.[13]
• 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.[14]
 ANNUAL SUMMIT
• The annual G8 leaders summit is attended by eight of the world's most powerful heads of government.
However, as noted by commentators the G-8 summit is not the place to flesh out the details of any
difficult or controversial policy issue in the context of a three-day event. Rather, the meeting is to bring
a range of complex and sometimes inter-related issues. The G8 summit brings leaders together not so
they can dream up quick fixes, but to talk and think about them together.[15]

• The G8 summit is an international event which is observed and reported by news media, but the G8's
relevance is unclear.[16] The member country holding the G8 presidency is responsible for organizing and
hosting the year's summit, held for three days in mid-year; and for this reason, Tony Blair and the
United Kingdom accumulated the lion's share of the credit for what went right (and wrong) at
Gleneagles in 2005. Similarly, Yasuo Fukuda and Japan hope to garner the greater part of the credit for
what went well (and what did not) at the Hokkaido Summit in 2008.

• Each of the 36 G8 summit meetings could have been called a success if the events had been re-framed
as venues to generate additional momentum for solving problems at the other multilateral conferences
that meet throughout the year. The G8 annual summit sets the stage for what needs to be done and
establishes an idea of how to do it, even if that idea is, at best, rough and patchy.[15] 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.[17]
 MEMBER FACTS
• All eight of the G8 countries are amongst the fifteen top-ranked leading export countries. [36] The
USA, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and Russia are among the top 10 countries with the largest gold
reserves.[37] Some of the world's twenty-five largest stock exchanges by traded value and market
capitalization are in G8 countries[38] (U.S., Japan, UK, France, Canada, Germany, Italy.) The G8
countries represent seven of the ten largest economies by nominal GDP[39] (Russia is not one of the
ten largest economies by nominal GDP but has the seventh largest GDP at purchasing power parity
(PPP); Canada was 8th in 2006 but in 2007 it lost eighth place to Spain, as it did in 2003,[39]
prompting the previous government headed by José María Aznar to request Spain's entrance in the
G8.) Spain is not a member by itself of the G-20 major economies either.

• The 2nd and 3rd largest oil producers (USA and Russia) and the country with the 2nd largest
reserves (Canada) are in the G8.[40] Seven of the nine largest nuclear energy producers are in the G8
[41] (USA, France, Japan, Russia, Germany, Canada, UK.) The 7 largest donors to the UN budget for

the 2009 annual fiscal year are in the G8[42] (U.S., Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada.) The
G8 and BRIC makes up almost all of the 12-nation "trillion dollar club of nations." Spain is the only
non-G8 and non-G20 major economy nation that has a nominal GDP of over USD $1 trillion. All of
the G8 and G8+5 countries (minus South Africa) are in the top twenty (20) nations that are ranked
by the amount of voting power in the International Monetary Fund organization.
 CUMULATIVE INFLUENCE OF MEMBER
NATIONS
• 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[43] 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[44]), and almost all of the world's active nuclear weapons.
[45] 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.[
 CRITICISMS AND DEMONSTRATIONS
• As the annual summits are extremely high profile, they are subject to extensive
lobbying by advocacy groups and street demonstrations by activists.
• The most widespread criticisms centre on the assertion that members of G8 are
responsible for global problems such as poverty in Africa and developing countries -
through debt and trade policy; global warming - due to carbon dioxide emissions;
and the AIDS problem - due to strict medicine patent policy and other issues
related to globalization. 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. [47]
• One of the largest and most violent anti-globalization movement protests occurred
for the 27th G8 summit.[48] Following those events and the September 11 attacks
two months later in 2001, the G8 have met at more remote locations. The
7 July 2005 London bombings were timed to coincide with the 31st G8 summit in
United Kingdom.
• The group has also been criticized for its membership, which critics
argue has now become unrepresentative of the world's most
powerful economies. In particular, China has recently surpassed every
economy except the United States[49]. Canada has been in recent
years overtaken by Brazil, Russia and Spain by nominal GDP.
• Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, has said: "We are
committed to reforming the international system and our interests
are best served by giving China a stake in the process. We would like
to build with China the kind of relationship we had with the G-7."[50]
• According to the mingle trend survey, 51% of Britons think the G8
summit is no longer an appropriate way of making world decisions.[
THANK YOU