G8 Totally Explained

Everything about G8 totally explained

Group of Eight Groupe des Huit Gruppe der Acht Gruppo di Otto 主要国首脳会議 Большая восьмёрка
ť Prime Minister Stephen Harper ť President Nicolas Sarkozy ť Chancellor Angela Merkel ť Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ť Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda President of the G8 for 2008 ť President Dmitry Medvedev ť Prime Minister Gordon Brown ť President George W. Bush Also represented ť President José Manuel Barroso President Janez Janša

The Group of Eight (G8), also known as Group of Seven and Russia, is an international forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, these countries represent about 65% of the Gross World Product and the majority of global military power (7 of the top 8 positions for military expenditure, and almost all of the world's active nuclear weapons.) The G8 can refer to the member states or to the annual summit meeting of the G8 heads of government. 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. The European Union is also represented at the meetings by the president of the European Commission and the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
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 and include five developing countries, referred to as the Outreach Five (O5) or the Plus Five: Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. These countries have participated as guests in previous meetings, which are sometimes called G8+5.

History

The concept of a forum for the world's major industrialized democracies emerged following the 1973 oil crisis and subsequent global recession. In 1974 the United States created the Library Group, an informal gathering of senior financial officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan and France, 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 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 U.S. President Gerald Ford, and the group became known as 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 European Union has attended all meetings since it was first invited by the United Kingdom in 1977.
The Cold War ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and Russia became the successor state. Beginning with the 1994 Naples summit, Russian officials held a separate meeting with leaders of the G7 after the main summit. This group became known as the Political 8 (P8), or colloquially as the "G7 plus 1". At the initiative of United States President Bill Clinton, Russia formally joined the group in 1997, resulting in the Group of Eight (G8).

Structure and activities

The G8 is intended to be an informal forum, and it therefore lacks an administrative structure like those for international organizations, such as the United Nations or the World Bank. The group doesn't 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 January 1 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 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, labour, 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's attended by finance and energy ministers from all eight member countries in addition to the five "Outreach Countries": Brazil, 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.

Annual summit

The annual G8 leaders summit is attended by eight of the world's most powerful heads of government. As such, it's an international event that's observed and reported by news media. The member country holding the G8 presidency is responsible for organising and hosting the year's summit, held for three days in mid-year.

	Date	Host country	Host leader	Location held	Website
1st	November 15–17, 1975	France	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	Rambouillet
2nd	June 27–28, 1976	United States	Gerald R. Ford	San Juan, Puerto Rico
3rd	May 7–8, 1977	United Kingdom	James Callaghan	London
4th	July 16–17, 1978	West Germany	Helmut Schmidt	Bonn
5th	June 28–29, 1979	Japan	Masayoshi Ohira
6th	June 22–3, 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
12th	May 4–6, 1986	Japan	Yasuhiro Nakasone
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	Grande Arche, Paris
16th	July 9–11, 1990	United States	George H. W. Bush	Rice University, Houston, Texas
17th	July 15–17, 1991	United Kingdom	John Major	London
18th	July 6–8, 1992	Germany	Helmut Kohl	Munich
19th	July 7–9, 1993	Japan	Kiichi Miyazawa
20th	July 8–10, 1994	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Naples
21st	June 15–17, 1995	Canada	Jean Chrétien	Halifax, Nova Scotia
-	April 19–20, 1996 (Special summit on nuclear security)	Russia	Boris Yeltsin	Moscow
22nd	June 27–29, 1996	France	Jacques Chirac	Lyon
23rd	June 20–22, 1997 (First summit as G8)	United States	Bill Clinton	Denver, Colorado	(External Link)
24th	May 15–17, 1998	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	Birmingham, England	(External Link)
25th	June 18–20, 1999	Germany	Gerhard Schröder	Cologne
26th	July 21–23, 2000	Japan	Yoshiro Mori	Nago, Okinawa	(External Link)
27th	July 20–22, 2001	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Genoa	(External Link)
28th	June 26–27, 2002	Canada	Jean Chrétien	Kananaskis, Alberta	(External Link)
29th	June 2–3, 2003	France	Jacques Chirac	Évian-les-Bains	(External Link)
30th	June 8–10, 2004	United States	George W. Bush	Sea Island, Georgia	(External Link)
31st	July 6–8, 2005	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	Gleneagles, Scotland	(External Link)
32nd	July 15–17, 2006	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Strelna, St. Petersburg	(External Link)
33rd	June 6–8, 2007	Germany	Angela Merkel	Heiligendamm, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	(External Link)
34th	July 7–9, 2008	Japan	Yasuo Fukuda (predicted)	Tōyako, Hokkaidō	(External Link)
35th	2009	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi (predicted)	La Maddalena	(External Link)
36th	2010	Canada
37th	2011	France	Nicolas Sarkozy (predicted)
38th	2012	United States	Winner of US Presidential Election, 2008
39th	2013	United Kingdom
40th	2014	Russia

Economic power

The eight countries making up the G8 represent about 14% of the world population, but they account for 65% of the world's economic output measured by gross domestic product, all 8 within the top 10 countries according to the CIA World Factbook. (see List of countries by GDP (nominal) and List of countries by GDP (PPP))
In 2007, the combined G8 military spending was US$850 billion. This was 72% of the world's total military expenditures. (see List of countries and federations by military expenditures) Four of the G8 members United Kingdom, United States of America, France and Russia together account for 96-99% of the world's nuclear weapons. (see List of states with nuclear weapons)

Criticism and demonstrations

As the annual summits are extremely high profile, they're subject to extensive lobbying by advocacy groups and street demonstrations by activists.
The most well-known criticisms center on the assertion that members of G8 are responsible for global issues such as poverty in Africa and developing countries due to debt and trading policy, global warming due to carbon dioxide emission, the AIDS problem due to strict medicine patent policy and other issues related to globalization. During the 31st G8 summit in Scotland, 250, 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.,
Of the anti-globalization movement protests, the largest and most violent was that of the 27th G8 summit in Genoa in 2001. Summits since have been hosted outside of major cities.

Leaders and Ministers

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