MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS

Project Report on
‘G8’

Group Members:
Anand Vaidya

Shreya Shukla

Ganesh Sawant

Vishal Jadhav

INDEX
1) Acknowledgement
2) What is G8
3) History
4) Structure & Activities
5) Annual Summit
6) Facts and Leaders
7) Criticisms and Demonstrations

What is the G8?

Since 1975, the heads of state or government of the major industrial democracies
have been meeting annually to deal with the major economic and political issues
facing their domestic societies and the international community as a whole. The six
countries at the first summit, held at Rambouillet, France, in November 1975, were
France, the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan and Italy (sometimes referred to
as the G6). They were joined by Canada at the San Juan Summit of 1976 in Puerto
Rico, and by the European Community at the London Summit of 1977. From then
on, membership in the Group of Seven, or G7, was fixed, although 15 developing
countries' leaders met with the G7 leaders on the eve of the 1989 Paris Summit,
and the USSR and then Russia participated in a post-summit dialogue with the G7
since 1991. Starting with the 1994 Naples Summit, the G7 met with Russia at each
summit (referred to as the P8 or Political Eight). The Denver Summit of the Eight
was a milestone, marking full Russian participation in all but financial and certain
economic discussions; and the 1998 Birmingham Summit saw full Russian
participation, giving birth to the Group of Eight, or G8 (although the G7 continued
to function along side the formal summits). At the Kananaskis Summit in Canada
in 2002, it was announced that Russia would host the G8 Summit in 2006, thus
completing its process of becoming a full member.

The G7/8 Summit has consistently dealt with macroeconomic management,

international trade, and relations with developing countries. Questions of East-
West economic relations, energy, and terrorism have also been of recurrent
concern. From this initial foundation the summit agenda has broadened
considerably to include microeconomic issues such as employment and the
information highway, transnational issues such as the environment, crime and
drugs, and a host of political-security issues ranging from human rights through
regional security to arms control.

The responsibility of host rotates throughout the summit cycle at the end of the
calendar year, as follows: France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia (as of
2006), Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada. Throughout the year, the leaders'
personal representatives – known as sherpas – meet regularly to discuss the agenda
and monitor progress.
In addition, the G7/8 has developed a network of supporting ministerial meetings,
which allow ministers to meet regularly throughout the year in order to continue
the work set out at each summit; these include the meetings of the finance
ministers, foreign ministers and environment ministers, among others. G7/8
ministers and officials also meet on an ad hoc basis to deal with pressing issues,
such a terrorism, energy, and development; from time to time the leaders also
create task forces or working groups to focus intensively on certain issues of
concern, such as a drug-related money laundering, nuclear safety, and transnational
organized crime.

The G7/8 provides an important occasion for busy leaders to discuss major, often
complex international issues, and to develop the personal relations that help them
respond in effective collective fashion to sudden crises or shocks. The summit also
gives direction to the international community by setting priorities, defining new
issues and providing guidance to established international organizations. At times
it arrives at decisions that address pressing problems or shape international order
more generally.

The summit members comply modestly with the decisions and consensus
generated by and codified at their annual meeting. Compliance is particularly high
in regard to agreements on international trade and energy, and on the part of
Britain, Canada, and Germany. Summit decisions often create and build
international regimes to deal with new international challenges, and catalyze,
revitalize and reform existing international institutions.

In recognition of its centrality in the process of global governance, the summit has
always attracted the attention of thousands of journalists at each leader’s meeting,
and of a number of countries seeking admittance to this exclusive and powerful
club. It has also become a prime occasion for non-governmental and civil society
organizations to advocate on behalf of their concerns. The annual meeting has been
an opportunity for anti-globalization demonstrations since the Birmingham
Summit in 1998; the protests turned violent in 2001 at the Genoa Summit, resulting
in the death of a protestor.
 What does the G stand for?
Group!

The G8 is short for "Group of Eight," just as G7 is short for "Group of Seven," and
G20 is short for "Group of 20." The eight members of the G8 are, in order of their
rotating hosting responsibilities:

France
United States
United Kingdom
Russia (as of 2006)
Germany
Japan
Italy
Canada

The G7 consists of the same members without Russia. When the group meets "at
seven," that means Russia was not an active participant.

There is a ninth member of both the G7 and G8: the European Union. At the
leaders' level, the EU is represented by the president of the European Commission
and the president of the European Council.

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
becoming the G8, the group added Russia in 1997. In addition, the European is
represented within the G8, but cannot host or chair.

"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.
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”. This
was an informal gathering of senior financial officials from the United States, the
United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan and France. In 1975, French President
Valery invited the 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 and the group became the Group of Seven (G7). The European Union is
represented by the President 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 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 Bill Clinton, Russia
formally joined the group in 1997, resulting in the Group of Eight, or G8.
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 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 includes 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, 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. 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.
The G8 summit is an international event which is observed and reported by news
media, but the G8's relevance is unclear. 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. 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.
 HOST HOST LOCATION
DATE NOTES
COUNTRY LEADER HELD

First G8 Summit on Russian soil. Also,

July 15–17, Vladimir Strelna, St.
32nd Russia the International Atomic Energy
2006 Putin Petersburg
Agency and UNESCO made their debut here.

Seven different international organizations

Heiligendamm, accepted their invitations to this Summit. The
June 6–8, Angela
33rd Germany Mecklenburg- Organization for Economic Co-operation and
2007 Merkel
Vorpommern Development and the Commonwealth of
Independent States made their debut here.

Nations that accepted their G8 Summit

July 7–9, Yasuo Toyako (Lake
34th Japan invitations for the first time
2008 Fukuda Toya), Hokkaido
are: Australia, Indonesia and South.

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
July 8–10, Silvio
35th Italy L'Aquila, Abruzzo accepted their invitations for the first time were:
2009 Berlusconi
Angola, Denmark, Netherlands and Spain. A
record of TEN (10) international organizations
was represented in this G8 Summit. For the first
time, the Food, the International Fund for
Agricultural Development, the World, and the
Organization accepted their invitations.

Final G8 Summit to be held in current format,

before the economies Summit becomes main
annual international economic forum in the same
June 25– Stephen
36th Canada Huntsville, Ontario manner as previous G8
26, 2010 Harper
Summits. Malawi, Colombia, Haiti,
and Jamaica accepted their invitations for the
first time.
FACTS

• Founded: 1975, Rambouillet, France

• Original members: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US
• Later members: Canada (joined at 1976 summit, San Juan, Puerto Rico),
Russia (joined at 1998 summit, Birmingham, UK)

LEADERS

The presidency of the G8 rotates between the group's member nations on an annual
basis.
The country holding the presidency in a given year is responsible for hosting the
annual summit and for handling the security arrangements.
As the foremost economic and political power in the G8, the US is regarded as the
dominant member of the group, although this position is not formally enshrined.

Leaders of G8 countries aim to:

 Boost cooperation over trade and finance
 Strengthen the global economy
 Promote peace and democracy
 Prevent and resolve conflicts
Criticism and demonstrations

20 July 2001, 27th G8 summit in Genoa, Italy: Protesters burn a police vehicle
which was abandoned by police during a clash with protesters.

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.

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. 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. 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."

According to the mingle trend survey, 51% of Britons think the G8 summit is no
longer an appropriate way of making world decisions.