G8

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{| class="infobox" border="1" cellpadding="4" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; width: 20em; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 90%; clear: right"|-!Group of Eight|-| Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper

President of France Nicolas Sarkozy

Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel
President of the G8 for 2007

Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi

Prime Minister of Japan Yasuo Fukuda

President of Russia Vladimir Putin

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown

President of the United States of America George W. Bush

Also represented

The EU has the privileges and obligations of membership but does not host/chair summits. It is represented by the Commission and Council Presidents. President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso European Council#President-in-Office José Sócrates

|}The Group of Eight (G8) 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 world economy United Nations Development Programme and the majority of global military power (7 of the top 8 positions for military expenditure, and almost all active nuclear weapons). The group's activities include year-round conferences and policy research, culminating with an annual summit meeting attended by the heads of government of the member states. The European Commission is also represented at the meetings.

Each year, member states of the G8 take turns assuming the presidency of the group. The holder of the presidency sets the group's annual agenda and hosts the summit for that year.

History The concept of a forum for the world's major industrialised democracy 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 organised under a rotating presidency, forming the Group of Six (G6). The following year, Canada joined the group at the behest of President of the United States 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 and 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 20th G7 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 in 2007 was hosted by Germany (Angela Merkel, Chancellor)

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 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 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 is attended by finance and energy ministers from all eight member countries in addition to the five "Outreach Countries": People's Republic of China, Mexico, India, Brazil and South Africa.

In June 2005, justice ministers and interior ministers from the G8 countries agreed to launch an international database on pedophiles. G8 to launch international pedophile database David Batty June 18, 2005 The Guardian The G8 officials also agreed to pool data on terrorism, subject to restrictions by privacy and security laws in individual countries. G8 to pool data on terrorism Martin Wainwright June 18, 2005 The Guardian

Annual summit The annual G8 leaders summit is attended by eight of the world's most powerful heads of government. As such, it is an international event that is 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.

{| class="wikitable"! !! Date !! Host country!! Host leader !! Location held !! Web site|-| 1st G6 Summit || November 15–17, 1975 || || Valéry Giscard d'Estaing ] |||-| 2nd G7 summit || June 27–28, 1976 || || Gerald R. Ford ], Puerto Rico ] || May 7–8, 1977 || || James Callaghan ] |||-| 4th G7 summit || July 16–17, 1978 || || Helmut Schmidt ] |||-| 5th G7 summit || June 28–29, 1979 || || Masayoshi Ohira ] |||-| 6th G7 summit || June 22–3, 1980 || ||Francesco Cossiga |||-| [7th G7 summit || July 20–21, 1981 || || Pierre E. Trudeau ], Quebec ] || June 4–6, 1982 || ||François Mitterrand ] |||-| 9th G7 Summit || May 28–30, 1983 || ||Ronald Reagan ], Virginia ] || June 7–9, 1984 || || Margaret Thatcher ] |||-| 11th G7 summit || May 2–4, 1985 || ||Helmut Kohl ] |||-| 12th G7 summit || May 4–6, 1986 || ||Yasuhiro Nakasone ] |||-| 13th G7 summit || June 8–10, 1987 || ||Amintore Fanfani |||-| [14th G7 summit || June 19–21, 1988 || ||Brian Mulroney ] |||-| 15th G7 summit || July 14–16, 1989 || ||François Mitterrand ], Paris ] || July 9–11, 1990 || ||George H. W. Bush ], Texas ] || July 15–17, 1991 || ||John Major |||-| [18th G7 summit || July 6–8, 1992 || ||Helmut Kohl ] |||-| 19th G7 summit || July 7–9, 1993 || ||Kiichi Miyazawa ] |||-| 20th G7 summit || July 8–10, 1994 || ||Silvio Berlusconi |||-| [21st G8 summit || June 15–17, 1995 || ||Jean Chrétien ], Nova Scotia ] || Moscow ] || June 27–29, 1996 || ||Jacques Chirac ] |||-| 23rd G8 summit || June 20–22, 1997
(First summit as G8) || ||Bill Clinton ], Colorado ] || May 15–17, 1998 || ||Tony Blair ], England || (archive)|-| 25th G8 summit || June 18–20, 1999 || ||Gerhard Schröder |||-| [26th G8 summit || July 21–23, 2000 || ||Yoshiro Mori ], Okinawa ] || July 20–22, 2001 || ||Silvio Berlusconi ] |||-| 28th G8 summit || June 26–27, 2002 || ||Jean Chrétien ], Alberta ] || June 2–3, 2003 || ||Jacques Chirac ] || |-| 30th G8 summit || June 8–10, 2004 || ||George W. Bush ] || |-| 31st G8 summit || July 6–8, 2005 || ||Tony Blair ], Scotland ] || July 15–17, 2006 || ||Vladimir Putin ], St. Petersburg ] || June 6–8, 2007 || || Angela Merkel ],
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ] || 2008 || || || Tōyako, Hokkaidō, Hokkaidō ]|| |-| 36th || 2010 || || || |||-| 37th || 2011 || || || |||-| 38th || 2012 || || || |||-| 39th || 2013 || || || |||-| 40th || 2014 || || || |||}

Economic power The eight countries making up the G8 represent about 14% of the world population, but they account for nearly two thirds of the world's economic output measured by gross domestic product.

In 2005, the combined G8 military spending was US$707 billion. This was 71% of the world's total military expenditures. Four of the G8 members United Kingdom, United States of America, France and Russia together account for 98% of the world's nuclear weapons.

Criticism and demonstrations in Genoa, Italy by burning vehicles on the main route to the summitAs the annual summits are extremely high profile, they are 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 Third World debt and trading policy, global warming due to carbon dioxide emission, the AIDS problem due to strict medicine patent policy and other problems that are related to globalization. G8 leaders are pressured to take responsibility to combat problems they are accused of creating. For example, Live 8, a series of concerts in July 2005 to coincide with the 31st G8 summit, was intended to promote global awareness and to encourage G8 leaders to "Make Poverty History". Live 8 organizers also proposed that G8 member nations adjust their national budgets to allow for 0.7% to go towards foreign aid as outlined in Agenda 21 of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit.

Another criticism revolves around the membership of the G8. With the exclusion of the People's Republic of China, the fourth largest economy in the world, the G8 no longer represents the concentration of economic power it did when it was created. The lack of representation from the 'global south' leads many critics to label the G8 as an institution to continue western economic domination.

Of the anti-globalization movement protests, the largest was that of the 27th G8 summit in Genoa in 2001. Summits since have been hosted outside of major cities. The opening day of the 2005 summit meeting in Scotland was accompanied by a series of 7 July 2005 London bombings in London.

See also

33rd G8 summit (information on the most recent summit)
G7
G8+5 Gleneagles Dialogue
Anti-globalization
G8 Research Group—University of Toronto, Canada
Developing 8 Countries (D8)
Forum for the Future (Bahrain 2005) G8 meeting on Middle East reform
Group of Eleven, a group of eleven developing countries
G20 industrial nations
G20 developing nations
Group of 33
J8
List of countries and federations by military expenditures
List of countries by GDP (nominal)
Senior G8 leader
World Social Forum
Next Eleven

References External links For the official summit websites, see the applicable article, e.g. 33rd G8 summit.

G8: The World Can't Wait!, "Oxfam International G8 Blog", oxfam.org
G8 research group, "G8 Research Group's Information Centre", utoronto.ca
"Special Report: G8", Guardian Unlimited
"Profile: G8", BBC News
"London rocked by terror attacks", "BBC News", July 7 2005.
"We are deeply concerned. Again", New Statesman, 4 July 2005, —G8 development concerns since 1977
"FlashRadio", —An activist daily radio podcast focusing on the anti-G8 movement in Rostock, 2007

Official G8 sites of member states (not summit specific)

Canada
United Kingdom

History of the G8 —UK government site

Anti G8 Media Activism

"FlashRadio", —An activist daily radio podcast focusing on the anti-G8 movement in Rostock, 2007

Home G8 Gleneagles 2005
The Official UK G8 Presidency homepage - Information about the Gleneagles G8 Summit, the G8 and its priorities and official documents and statements.

G8 background and history G8 Gleneagles 2005
The Official UK G8 Presidency homepage - G8 Background. G8 Presidencies from the year 2000 and beyond… Japan 2000 Italy 2001 Canada 2002

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Country profiles | Profile: G8
Key facts about the group of leading industrialised countries ... With no headquarters, budget or permanent staff, the Group of Eight is an informal but exclusive body whose ...

BBC NEWS | Americas | Country profiles | Profile: G8
Key facts about the group of leading industrialised countries ... With no headquarters, budget or permanent staff, the Group of Eight is an informal but exclusive body whose ...

G8 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Group of Eight (G8), also known as Group of Seven and Russia, [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] is an international forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy ...

Corporate Watch : G8 Report : Introduction
Corporate Watch 16b Cherwell St Oxford OX4 1BG United Kingdom t: +44 (0)1865 791 391 e: mail@corporatewatch.org

G8 | World news | guardian.co.uk
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Membership of G8. ... Public Sector. Tuesday, August 5, 2008

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The G8 Summit 2008 will take place in Toyako in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island., from 7-9 July. Number 10 will keep you updated on G8 Japan with regular posts to this ...

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south east region mobilising network ... We are a network of groups and individuals in the South-East, interested in actively resisting the UK presidency of the G8, and the summit ...