G8 — The Group of Eight
Round Table in L’Aquila
(picture-alliance/dpa)
Who are the G8?
The Group of Eight (G8) comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America; the European Commission is also represented. The members of the Group take it in turns annually to hold the Presidency. In 2009 it was Italy’s turn.
The most visible part of the G8 process is the annual summit, to which the Heads of State and Government are invited by the presidency usually sometime mid-year. At the summits, the Heads of State and Government have an opportunity to exchange views in face-to-face talks. Moreover, joint G8 initiatives are launched at these summits. The 2009 G8 Summit was hosted by the Italian Presidency in L’Aquila/Abruzzi from 8 to 10 July. It was devoted mainly to the economic and financial crisis. Other focuses were climate change and energy, African development and food security on that continent, the “Heiligendamm-L’Aquila Process” and foreign-policy issues. The next G8 Summit is to be held in June 2010 in Muskoka/Canada.
The G8 Foreign Ministers also meet on a regular basis to discuss foreign policy issues. The Finance Ministers likewise meet to deal with monetary and financial issues. Other ministers, such as those responsible for environment and development, also meet in the G8 format.
Summit in the shadow of the global economic crisis
(picture-alliance/dpa)
How does the G8 process work?
The G8 process is more than just a series of summit meetings. Over the years a fully-fledged programme of political coordination has grown up around this annual event. The topics for the summit and the ministers meetings are prepared by high-level staff of the Heads of State and Government and the ministers, known in G8 jargon as “sherpas” and “sous-sherpas”. They meet several times a year. The German sherpa appointed by Chancellor Merkel is Dr Bernd Pfaffenbach, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. He is aided by one sous-sherpa for global economic, environmental and development issues (from the Federal Foreign Office) and one sous-sherpa for financial policy (from the Federal Ministry of Finance), as well as by the Political Director of the Federal Foreign Office, for issues of foreign and security policy. The implementation of the G8 Africa Action Plan, drafted with considerable input from the Federal Foreign Office, is the responsibility of the Chancellor’s G8 Personal Representative for Africa.
The G8 mandates groups of experts on an ad-hoc basis to research individual topics, such as the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or the international fight against organized crime and terrorism. The recommendations produced are discussed at the G8 summits by the Heads of State and Government and are included in the summit conclusions.
Although the G8 continues to be an informal forum for coordinating policy, the decisions made by the Group have a binding effect politically and are presented to other multilateral bodies jointly by the G8.
G8 goals at a time of change: 1975 to the end of the eighties
The idea of a personal exchange of opinion was what inspired the first summit of the Six in Rambouillet, France, in 1975 (Canada only joined in 1976). The German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing saw the necessity of coordinating the economic policies of the principal world economies at international level. Only thus could the worldwide downturn, triggered by the collapse of the Bretton Woods System of fixed exchange rates and by the first oil crisis, be overcome.
The first summits from 1975-77 (Rambouillet, Puerto Rico, London) focused on restoring more balanced growth in the global economy. One important milestone was the Bonn summit in 1978: the Heads of State and Government agreed on concrete joint measures and were thus able to give their economies another boost together. Moreover, they undertook to observe certain timeframes in the deadlocked GATT negotiations and made binding decisions to prevent aircraft hijacking.
The second oil price crisis cast its shadow over the Tokyo summit in 1979. The Heads of State and Government discussed strategies to lower energy consumption without jeopardizing economic growth which proved to be successful. The summit meetings of 1980-84 (Venice, Ottawa, Versailles, Williamsburg, London) focused on responses to the growing tension between East and West in connection with the force modernization debate and the Afghanistan conflict, and to international terrorism. However, economic issues were always on the agenda.
The second summit in 1985 in Bonn paved the way for the conclusion of the Plaza agreement a few months later. It brought the flow of global trade back into balance through a comprehensive devaluation of the dollar. The success of a summit is not merely reflected in the immediate results. The exchanges of personal views on future developments are also very valuable and helpful in order to prepare for later decisions of great significance. The fight against terrorism and drugs was in the forefront in 1986-87 (Tokyo, Venice). The 1988-89 summits (Toronto, Paris) were devoted once again increasingly to basic issues of monetary and economic policy.
The end of the Cold War and the challenges of globalization
German unification, the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union was a historic turning-point. The summit meetings of 1990-91 (Houston, London) endeavoured to offer an appropriate reaction to the momentous changes in Central and Eastern Europe. Bilateral aid and IMF loans were set up to bolster the process of economic transformation. At the same time, the group invited Mikhail Gorbachev to attend on the last day of the London summit. In the following years, the G7 included Russia increasingly in the political work of the group. Russia was confirmed five years later as a fully-fledged member of the group, now known as the G8. It was of paramount importance for Germany to assist, together with its partners, in the political and economic integration of Russia in a changing world order.
The Munich summit in 1992 again had foreign policy issues at the top of the agenda and dealt primarily with the conflict in disintegrating Yugoslavia and with the development of new partnerships between the West on the one hand and Eastern Europe and the developing countries on the other. The issue of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and, in the field of economics, the fight against unemployment were also addressed.
The Tokyo summit in 1993 concentrated primarily on a global strategy for growth in order to promote employment. At the 1994-95 summits (Naples, Halifax), the Heads of State and Government gave their support to improved financial instruments at the World Bank and the IMF in order to deal more effectively with crises on the international financial markets. The Lyon summit in 1996 dealt mainly with the fight against organized crime and terrorism and set up a group of experts to examine these issues (the “Lyon group”). In 1997 in Denver, the Heads of State and Government called for a new partnership with Africa, an issue which has continued to be an important element of talks at the summits. Discussions in Birmingham in 1998 focused on the challenges facing the world at the threshold of the 21st century. In view of the crisis in Asia, the Heads of State and Government discussed how to ensure long-term growth and sustainable development in order to create jobs and prevent social exclusion.
The summits in Birmingham (1998), Cologne (1999), Okinawa (2000) and Genoa (2001) focused on education as a prerequisite for prosperity in industrialized and developing countries, overcoming the digital divide, climate protection, debt relief for the poorest countries and the fight against AIDS.
During the German Presidency in 1999, a series of concrete proposals on how to prevent financial crises in future more effectively were put forward and have since been implemented. The Cologne summit had a decisive impact on extending and accelerating debt relief for the poorest and most highly indebted countries (HIPC Initiative). During the Gleneagles summit in 2005 the UK Presidency once again took up the theme of indebtedness. The Heads of State and Government expanded the cancellation of debts from loans by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Development Association (IDA, the concessionary arm of the World Bank) and the African Development Fund (ADF) to a general 100% (the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI)).
Since then, the number of global issues which can only be resolved in conjunction with others has steadily grown. The globalization of the world economy is advancing. While the summits initially largely concentrated on cooperation in the field of monetary policy, international cooperation in environmental, security and foreign policy became increasingly important during the eighties. Since the end of the nineties, the G8 Heads of State and Government have increasingly focused on economic, political and social challenges which require joint responses due to globalization.