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Group of Eight

Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper  France President François Hollande  Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel  Italy Prime Minister Matteo Renzi  Japan Prime Minister Shinzō Abe  Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin  United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron  United States of America President Barack Obama 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 a group of eight leading industrialised countries. The forum originated with a 1975 summit hosted by France that brought together representatives of six governments: France, West 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. The G7 is composed by the seven developed wealthiest countries on Earth (as national net wealth) and by the seven developed wealthiest countries on Earth by GDP, and it remains active despite the creation of the G8. In 1998 Russia was added to the group which then became known as the G8. The European Union is represented within the G8 but could not host or chair summits.

"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, in 2012 the G8 nations comprised 50.1% of 2012 global nominal GDP and 40.9% of global GDP (PPP). Each calendar year the responsibility of hosting the G8 is rotated 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. 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 (7th country in the world by nominal GDP ), People's Republic of China (2nd country in the world by GDP ), India (10th country in the world by GDP ), Mexico, and South Africa. These countries have participated as guests in 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 would replace the G8 as the main economic council of wealthy nations.

Due to Russia's involvement in the 2014 Crimean crisis, the status of Russia's membership in the G8 is at risk and several G8 leaders are calling for Russia's suspension from the group. On March 20, 2014 German Chancellor Angela Merkel indicated in a speech to the Bundestag that there would be a suspension of all future G8 meetings due to the ongoing crisis in Crimea. She further indicated that the G8 was effectively dissolved and would remain suspended pending changes to the political situation. The remaining members have scheduled meetings to discuss the situation in Ukraine and Crimea. (Remarkable that in 1999, after NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, when the US and UK used cluster bombs, forbidden in the whole world, and killed few hundreds civilians , Russia (the owner of the largest nuclear arsenal) didn't propose to suspend the UK and the US from the G8). David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has indicated that the organization's official 2014 summit will not be held, which was previously planned to take place in Russia.

History

The concept of a forum for the world's major industrialized countries emerged prior the 1973 oil crisis. On Sunday, March 25, 1973, Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz convened an informal gathering of Finance Ministers from West Germany (Helmut Schmidt), France (Valéry Giscard d'Estaing), and Britain (Anthony Barber) before an upcoming meeting in Washington DC. When running the idea past President Nixon, he noted that he would be out of town, and offered use of the White House; the meeting was subsequently held in the library on the ground floor. Taking their name from the setting, this original group of four became known as the "Library Group". In mid-1973, at the World Bank-IMF meetings, Shultz proposed the addition of Japan to the original four nations, who agreed. The informal gathering of senior financial officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan, and France became known as the "Group of Five."

The year that followed was one of the most turbulent of the post World War II era, The heads of state or government of the top ten industrial nations fell due to illness or scandal. There were two elections in the UK, two Chancellors of West Germany, three presidents of France, three Prime Ministers of Japan and Italy, two US Presidents and Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada was forced into an early election. Of the members of the "Group of Five" all were new to the job with the exception of Prime Minister Trudeau.

As 1975 dawned, Schmidt and Giscard were now heads of government in their respective countries, and since they both spoke fluent English, it occurred to them that they, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and US President Gerald Ford could get together in an informal retreat and discuss election results and the issues of the day. So, in the late spring, President Giscard 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 annual meeting of the six leaders was organized under a rotating presidency, forming the Group of Six (G6). The following year, with Wilson out as Prime Minister of Britain, Schmidt and Ford felt an English speaker with more experience was needed, so Canada's Pierre Trudeau was invited to join the group 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 first invited by the United Kingdom in 1977 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, President Boris Yeltsin was invited first as a guest observer, later as a full participant. It was seen as a way to encourage Yeltsin with his capitalist reforms. Russia formally joined the group in 1998, resulting in the Group of Eight, or G8.

Food

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

At the 2012 summit, President Barack Obama plans to ask G8 leaders to adopt a policy that would privatize global food investment.

Crimean crisis and potential Russian suspension

Following the suspension of the 2014 Sochi summit, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius claimed that Russia was suspended from the G8; however, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal clarified that Russia would remain a G8 member, and only the meeting would be suspended.

While visiting Kyiv on March 22, 2014 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that he supports expelling Russia from the G8 and expects to discuss the potential expulsion with other G7 leaders at an upcoming meeting in The Hague.

Structure 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 member countries, with each new term beginning on 1 January of the year. The rotation order is: France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada. 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.

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

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.

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. The UNFCCC is not on track to meeting any of its stated goals.

Annual summit

The annual G8 leaders summit is attended by the heads of government. 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.

	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		Also called "Rambouillet II;" Canada joins the group, forming the G7
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		acting Prime Minister Masayoshi Ito of Japan did not attend.
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
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
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.
23rd	June 20–22, 1997	United States	Bill Clinton	Denver		Russia joins the group, forming G8
24th	May 15–17, 1998	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	Birmingham
25th	June 18–20, 1999	Germany	Gerhard Schröder	Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia		First Summit of the G-20 major economies at Berlin
26th	July 21–23, 2000	Japan	Yoshiro Mori	Nago, Okinawa		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.
27th	July 20–22, 2001	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Genoa		Leaders from Bangladesh, Mali and El Salvador accepted their invitations here. 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. 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		Russia gains permission to officially host a G8 Summit.
29th	June 2–3, 2003	France	Jacques Chirac	Évian-les-Bains		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.
30th	June 8–10, 2004	United States	George W. Bush	Sea Island, Georgia		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. 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		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. 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.
32nd	July 15–17, 2006	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Strelna, St. Petersburg		First G8 Summit on Russian soil. Also, the International Atomic Energy Agency and UNESCO made their debut here.
33rd	June 6–8, 2007	Germany	Angela Merkel	Heiligendamm, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern		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.
34th	July 7–9, 2008	Japan	Yasuo Fukuda	Toyako (Lake Toya), Hokkaido		Nations that accepted their G8 Summit invitations for the first time are: Australia, Indonesia and South Korea.
35th	July 8–10, 2009	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	L'Aquila, Abruzzo		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. 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.
36th	June 25–26, 2010	Canada	Stephen Harper	Huntsville, Ontario		Malawi, Colombia, Haiti, and Jamaica accepted their invitations for the first time.
37th	May 26–27, 2011	France	Nicolas Sarkozy	Deauville, Basse-Normandie		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.
38th	May 18–19, 2012	United States	Barack Obama	Camp David		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. Also, this is the second G8 summit, in which one of the core leaders (Vladimir Putin) declined to participate. This G8 summit concentrated on the core leaders only; no non-G8 leaders or international organizations were invited.
39th	June 17–18, 2013	United Kingdom	David Cameron	Lough Erne, County Fermanagh		As in 2012, only the core members of the G8 attended this meeting. The four main topics that were discussed here were trade, government transparency, tackling tax evasion, and the ongoing Syrian crisis.
Informal G7 summit (G8 minus Russia)	March 24, 2014	Netherlands	Mark Rutte (Host only, but not attending the meeting)	Dutch Prime Ministers' official residence (Catshuis), The Hague		Emergency G8-meeting minus Russia (G7 therefore) in the margins of the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague. First meeting in a non-G8 member country. The meeting was called (1) to consider a joint response to Russia after its annexation of Crimea and (2) to consider the future of Russia's G8-membership.
40th	June 4–5, 2014	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Sochi		G8 summit suspended in association with Crimean crisis. G8 summit will not take place in Russia, Prime Minister David Cameron confirms.
41st	2015	Germany	Angela Merkel	Schloss Elmau

Member facts

These G8 countries represent:

• 7 of the 7 top-ranked developed countries with the highest national wealth (United States, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Canada) last century also known as G7
• 7 of the 15 top-ranked countries with the highest net wealth per capita (United States, France, Japan, UK, Italy, Canada, Germany)
• 8 of 12 top-ranked leading export countries.
• 6 of 10 top-ranked countries with the largest gold reserves (United States, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Japan).
• 8 of 11 top-ranked economies (by nominal GDP), according to latest (2012 data) International Monetary Fund's statistics.
• 5 countries with a nominal GDP per capita above US$40,000 (Canada, United States, Japan, Germany, France).
• 5 countries with a sovereign wealth fund, administered by either a national or a state/provincial government (Russia, United States, France, Canada, Italy).
• 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, United States).
• 3 countries that have nuclear weapons sharing programs (Canada, Germany, Italy).
• 7 of the 9 largest nuclear energy producers (United States, France, Japan, Russia, Germany, Canada, UK), even though Germany will wean itself from nuclear power by 2022. 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. However, in July 2012, Japan restarted two nuclear reactors at the Ōi Nuclear Power Plant. These reactors are the only ones currently in operation at this time.
• 8 of the 15 top donors to the UN budget for the 2013 annual fiscal year.
• 4 countries with a HDI index for 2013 of 0.9 and higher (United States, Germany, Japan, Canada).
• 2 countries with the highest credit rating from Standard & Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's at the same time (Canada and Germany).

With G8+5 and the G20

• all G8 countries became members of the unofficial trillion dollar club (countries with a nominal GDP in excess of US$1 trillion) by 2005. Today, 14 (out of the total of 15 so far) countries in the world are members of both the unofficial club and the G-20 major economies group.
• all of the G8, 15 (out of 19) of the G-20, 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 International Monetary Fund.
• 7 (out of 8) G8 countries (minus Russia) and 3 distinct members of the G-20 only (which are Australia, South Korea, and Argentina) have a HDI index of 0.8 or higher for 2013.

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 World wealth and 60% of the gross world product 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), and almost all of the world's active nuclear weapons. 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. (see List of states with nuclear weapons)

Criticism

Some criticism centres on the assertion that members of G8 do not do enough to help global problems such as Third World 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 analyst Titus Alexander described the G7, as it then was, as the 'cabinet' of global minority rule, with a coordinating role in world affairs.

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

Relevance

The G8's relevance is unclear. Critics argue that the G8 has now become unrepresentative of the world's most powerful economies. In particular, China has surpassed every economy but the United States, while Brazil has surpassed Canada and Italy (according to the IMF). Also according to the International Monetary Fund and the CIA World Factbook, India has already surpassed Canada, Italy, Germany, France, and Japan in terms of purchasing power parity, although remaining on the 10th position when it comes to Real GDP. This has given rise to the idea of enlarging G8 to the G8+5, which includes these other economically powerful nations. Other critics assert, however, that the concept of a country's net wealth is different from the nation's GDP.

With Vladimir Putin not attending the 2012 G8 summit at Camp David, there is an argument that the summit has generally outlived its usefulness as a viable international gathering of foreign leaders. As a result of that decision, one Foreign Policy magazine contributor stated that Russia should be deleted from the G8 altogether. 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.

Uk Prime Minister David Cameron said:

“Some people ask, does the G8 still matter, when we have a Group of 20? My answer is, yes. The G8 is a group of like-minded countries that share a belief in free enterprise as the best route to growth. As eight countries making up about half the world’s gross domestic product, the standards we set, the commitments we make, and the steps we take can help solve vital global issues, fire up economies and drive prosperity all over the world.”

Current leaders

See also

• BRIC
• BRICS
• Developing 8 Countries
• Forum for the Future (Bahrain 2005)
• G3 Free Trade Agreement
• G7
• G-20 major economies
• Group of Two
• Group of Eleven
• Group of 15
• Group of 24
• Group of 30
• Group of 77
• Junior 8
• List of countries by GDP (nominal)
• List of countries by military expenditures
• List of G8 summit resorts
• List of G8 leaders
• List of longest serving G8 leaders
• Next Eleven
• TIMBI
• World Social Forum
• North–South divide

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Further reading

• 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

• "Official website of Russia’s G8 Presidency (in English)"*
• 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"

• G8
• Country classifications
• Intergovernmental organizations
• 20th-century diplomatic conferences
• 21st-century diplomatic conferences