G7

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Group of Seven
Group of Seven
G7 member states (since 2014)

Observer:

The countries only represented by the European Union
are highlighted in turquoise
The heads of state and government at the G7 summit 2017 in
Taormina, Italy

The G7 (abbreviation for Group of Seven ) is an informal association of the most important industrial nations in the western world when it was founded in the form of regular summits of heads of state and government. The purpose of the forum is to discuss issues relating to the world economy. The panel includes Germany , France , Italy , Japan , Canada , the United Kingdom and the United States . The European Commission has observer status.

The population of the G7 countries accounts for around 10 percent of the world's population and generates around 45 percent of the world's gross national income .

The group was established in 1975 and expanded in 1998 when Russia joined the G8 . On March 25, 2014, the other members excluded Russia due to the annexation of Crimea and reverted to the G7 format.

Origin and area of ​​responsibility

The venue for the 2015 G7 summit in Germany: Schloss Elmau in the Alps

The group was founded in 1975 as a group of six (G6) during a fireplace chat at Rambouillet Castle . The heads of state and government of six countries took part in the G6 summit in Rambouillet from November 15 to 17, 1975: Federal Republic of Germany (represented by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt ), France (with President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as host), Great Britain , Italy, Japan and the United States. The issues at the time were monetary policy after the collapse of the Bretton Woods exchange rate system and the response to the first major oil crisis . At that time, the summit was planned as a forum for small groups to discuss financial and currency issues. However, its subject area has expanded considerably, which means that health and education policy, the economy, population development, the environment, climate change, foreign policy, questions of international law, criminal prosecution, terrorism, international trade and internal affairs (connection to land, sea and air routes) in the Debates are discussed. Foreign policy issues have now come to the fore, as the international links make these matters a priority.

The G6 itself, in turn, went back to the informal “Group of Five” (G5). This was a meeting of the finance ministers and central bank governors of the USA, Germany, the United Kingdom and France from March 25, 1973 - from September 1973 with Japan - in the library of the White House, which is why this group was also called the Library Group . From June 27, 1976 to 1998 there was already a G7 with Canada , but without Russia , and from 1998 to March 25, 2014 a G8 with Russia.

From 1998 to 2014 Russia was a full member (areas marked in blue). The states represented only by the EU in 1998 are colored turquoise.

In preparation for the annual summit, G8 ministerial meetings were held, in which selected international experts also took part. The G8 global partnership was launched by the G8 as an initiative against weapons of mass destruction . Transnational problems can "in the globalized world [...] only be solved in cooperation with others", was the G8 idea of ​​the German government.

The working group, which has been operating as the G7 again since the exclusion of Russia in 2014, is not an international organization, but an international network that is based on norms and rules, but has no substantive or substantive regulations. Their meetings are informal in order to discuss global issues and problems in a "relaxed atmosphere". One country takes on the chairmanship for a period of one year. The heads of state and government of the G7 countries and other countries meet at the annual world economic summit. Shortly beforehand, the foreign ministers of the states meet and specifically discuss foreign policy issues. In addition, there are constant consultations among full members as part of the G7 process .

The annual small-group meetings have now turned into permanent cooperation at the level of ministers and senior government officials. They prepare the annual summit, agree national positions and, in some cases, ensure that various positions are clarified in advance of the summit. For this purpose, every country sends so-called Sherpas and Sous-Sherpas. The current German Sherpa is the economic and financial policy advisor to Federal Chancellor Lars-Hendrik Röller . Prominent German Sherpas included the future Federal President Horst Köhler and the former President of the Deutsche Bundesbank , Hans Tietmeyer .

Economical meaning

In 1975 and 1976, the G6 and G7 were the six and seven largest economies in the world, respectively , as measured by gross domestic product at respective exchange rates and prices (in US dollars).

This has not been the case since the 1970s (see list of countries by gross domestic product ). In the meantime (as of 2017) the gross domestic product of China, India and Brazil, as well as in purchasing power parity also of Russia, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, South Korea, Spain and Saudi Arabia are above the gross domestic product of the economically smallest G7 member, Canada.

G7 countries population Gross national
income
Million % Billion US $ %
2018
United StatesUnited States United States 327.2 4.3 20,738.4 24.2
JapanJapan Japan 126.5 1.7 5,159.8 6.0
GermanyGermany Germany 82.9 1.1 4,105.0 4.8
FranceFrance France 67.0 0.9 2,839.4 3.3
United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom 66.5 0.9 2,790.0 3.3
ItalyItaly Italy 60.4 0.8 2,094.2 2.4
CanadaCanada Canada 37.1 0.5 1,688.4 2.0
G7 768 10.1 39,415 45.9
United NationsU.N. world 7,594 100.0 85,805 100.0

If you include the EU, the representation increases to around 14% of the population and 54% of the GNI.

List of G6, G8 and G7 meetings

List of G6, G8 and G7 meetings  
cycle No. year designation country Main themes
1 1. 1975 G6 summit in Rambouillet 1975 FranceFrance France First oil crisis and the collapse of the Bretton Woods system
2. 1976 G7 summit in San Juan 1976 United StatesUnited States United States
3. 1977 G7 summit in London 1977 United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
4th 1978 G7 summit in Bonn 1978 Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany BR Germany World economy, saving oil
5. 1979 G7 summit in Tokyo 1979 JapanJapan Japan Aircraft hijacking, Indochina - Refugee e
6th 1980 G7 summit in Venice in 1980 ItalyItaly Italy
7th 1981 G7 Summit in Ottawa 1981 CanadaCanada Canada
2 8th. 1982 G7 summit in Versailles 1982 FranceFrance France Growth of the world economy and employment, promotion of world trade, action against the USSR , development aid, stability in the world monetary system, Lebanon war
9. 1983 G7 summit in Williamsburg 1983 United StatesUnited States United States
10. 1984 G7 London Summit 1984 United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
11th 1985 G7 summit in Bonn 1985 Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany BR Germany Growth and Employment, Relationship with Developing Countries, Multilateral Trade System and International Monetary System, Environmental Policy, Cooperation in Science and Technology
12th 1986 G7 summit in Tokyo 1986 JapanJapan Japan Effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster , international terrorism, world economy
13th 1987 G7 summit in Venice 1987 ItalyItaly Italy
14th 1988 G7 summit in Toronto in 1988 CanadaCanada Canada International Economic Cooperation, Multilateral Economic System / Uruguay Round, Newly Industrialized Economies, Developing Countries and Debt, Environment, Future Summits, Other Problems, Annex to Structural Reform
3 15th 1989 G7 summit in Paris in 1989 FranceFrance France
16. 1990 G7 Houston Summit 1990 United StatesUnited States United States
17th 1991 G7 London Summit 1991 United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
18th 1992 G7 summit in Munich in 1992 GermanyGermany Germany World economy, the situation in developing countries, topics relating to Central and Eastern Europe, successor states to the Soviet Union and much more.
19th 1993 G7 summit in Tokyo 1993 JapanJapan Japan
20th 1994 G7 summit in Naples 1994 ItalyItaly Italy
21. 1995 G7 Halifax Summit 1995 CanadaCanada Canada
4th 22nd 1996 G7 summit in Lyon 1996 FranceFrance France
23 1997 G7 summit in Denver 1997 United StatesUnited States United States
24 1998 G8 Summit in Birmingham 1998 United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
25th 1999 G8 summit in Cologne 1999 GermanyGermany Germany Environment, foreign policy, international financial policy, goals and efforts for lifelong learning, Cologne debt initiative
26th 2000 G8 summit in Okinawa 2000 JapanJapan Japan First participation of African heads of government, health, overcoming the global "digital divide"
27 2001 G8 summit in Genoa 2001 ItalyItaly Italy Strategies to fight poverty in the world, global fund for disease control, liberalization of world trade, Kyoto Protocol
28. 2002 G8 summit in Kananaskis 2002 CanadaCanada Canada Russia's presidency of the G8, G8 Africa Action Plan, additional funds for the Cologne debt relief initiative , education, economic growth, environmental protection and sustainable development, overcoming the “digital divide” in the world, combating terrorism, travel and transport security, regional crises
5 29 2003 G8 summit in Évian-les-Bains 2003 FranceFrance France Development cooperation, debt relief, fighting AIDS and overcoming poverty as well as improving the opportunities for the countries of the South to participate in world trade
30th 2004 G8 Sea Island Summit 2004 United StatesUnited States United States International Terrorism, Development Aid, Near and Middle East
31. 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles 2005 United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom Global climate change, economic development in Africa, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons
32. 2006 G8 summit in Saint Petersburg 2006 RussiaRussia Russia Use of nuclear energy, Israel-Lebanon crisis
33 2007 G8 summit in Heiligendamm 2007 GermanyGermany Germany Energy consumption, climate change, missile defense systems, aid for Africa
34. 2008 G8 summit in Tōyako 2008 JapanJapan Japan Financial crisis
35. 2009 G8 summit in L'Aquila 2009 ItalyItaly Italy Terrorism, nuclear disarmament and interventions in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa. Developing agreements on energy scarcity, water, climate change and food security.
36. 2010 G8 summit in Huntsville 2010 CanadaCanada Canada Financial crisis , economic crisis
6th 37. 2011 G8 summit in Deauville 2011 FranceFrance France Nuclear power , Arab Spring
38. 2012 G8 summit in Camp David 2012 United StatesUnited States United States World economy, energy and climate change, nutrition and food supply, Afghanistan, turnaround in the Middle East and North Africa.
39. 2013 G8 summit on Lough Erne 2013 United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom Combating tax evasion , civil war in Syria
40. 2014 G7 summit in Brussels 2014 BelgiumBelgium Belgium Before the Crimean crisis, initially planned as a G8 summit in Sochi in 2014 , discarded with the special meeting in The Hague and reintroduced the G7.
41. 2015 G7 summit at Schloss Elmau 2015 GermanyGermany Germany
42. 2016 G7 summit in Ise-Shima 2016 JapanJapan Japan 45 points, including economic issues, world trade, financial stability, money laundering, tax competition, climate protection, inequality, terrorism, war, refugee flows, migration, education, research, resistance to antibiotics
43. 2017 G7 summit in Taormina 2017 ItalyItaly Italy
44. 2018 G7 summit in La Malbaie 2018 CanadaCanada Canada
7th 45. 2019 G7 summit in Biarritz 2019 FranceFrance France
46. 2020 G7 summit in Camp David 2020 United StatesUnited States United States Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic , the meeting could not take place as planned.
47. 2021 G7 summit in St Ives 2021 United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
48. 2022 * GermanyGermany Germany
49. 2023 * JapanJapan Japan
50 2024 * ItalyItaly Italy
51 2025 * CanadaCanada Canada

* Regular hosts, if membership has not changed until then

Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , the principle has been to choose a location that can be well secured ; the aim is to prevent the journalistic effect of protests from “ruining” the summit.

Development from the G6 to the G8 to the G7

March 1973 -
September 1973
G4 (informal group) United StatesUnited States United KingdomUnited Kingdom FranceFrance Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany United States , United Kingdom , France , Federal Republic of Germany
1973 G5 (informal group) United StatesUnited States United KingdomUnited Kingdom FranceFrance Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany JapanJapan Japan is added
1975 G6 United StatesUnited States United KingdomUnited Kingdom FranceFrance Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany JapanJapan ItalyItaly Italy becomes a member
1976 G7 United StatesUnited States United KingdomUnited Kingdom FranceFrance Germany Federal RepublicFederal Republic of Germany JapanJapan ItalyItaly CanadaCanada Canada becomes a member
1998 G8 United StatesUnited States United KingdomUnited Kingdom FranceFrance GermanyGermany JapanJapan ItalyItaly CanadaCanada RussiaRussia Russia becomes a participant
2014 G7 United StatesUnited States United KingdomUnited Kingdom FranceFrance GermanyGermany JapanJapan ItalyItaly CanadaCanada Russia will be excluded again

While the group of seven was synonymous with the Big Seven in the early years, this situation has changed with the rise of several large emerging countries since the 1990s. In 2013, the economically smallest country Canada was in the list of countries according to gross domestic product in 11th place, according to purchasing power parity in 13th place. The BRICS countries of China, Russia, India and Brazil are among the largest economies before Canada, and Mexico and South Korea in terms of purchasing power parity.

Criticism, protests and alternatives

The G7 (and also the G8) were criticized, among other things, for their exclusive composition from the highly developed countries of the world, which does not reflect the various regions, population figures and stages of development of the world of states (representativeness deficit). In addition, the inadequate implementation of approved programs and the lack of transparency in decision-making under exclusion of the public and parliaments are viewed as problematic (legitimation deficit).

Just like the summits of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the G7 and G8 summits have repeatedly been the target of protests by the anti-globalization movement and other social movements .

The death of Carlo Giuliani , who was shot and killed by a police officer while attacking a police vehicle in Genoa during the 2001 protests , sparked great media coverage . This summit was also characterized by numerous violent clashes between autonomous groups and police officers in the vicinity of the demonstrators, which led to several legal proceedings against demonstrators and police officers. Several police officers, some of whom were high-ranking, were charged with assaulting and torturing demonstrators. In addition to the trial of the assaults during the storming of the Diaz school, the trial of torture in the Bolzaneto prison (see Bolzaneto trial ) received a lot of media attention (see G8 summit in Genoa 2001 ).

World Youth Summit Y 7

The “World Youth Summit” as a supplement to the G-7 summit has been taking place since 2006, from 16. – 20. April 2018 in Ottawa .

World Social Forum

The World Social Forum as well as the continental and regional social forums offer counter-events to the summits of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos ( Switzerland ) and the annual world economic summits of the heads of government of the G8 countries. The forums are open meetings to allow civilians and groups to influence and discuss ideas directly. In terms of content, they are directed against a world dominated by capital or any form of imperialism and campaign for the establishment of a humane society in their own way. According to their own charter, people think together, debate different views, formulate proposals and freely exchange experiences, but without being able to implement their proposals through direct agency, such as state governments have.

See also

literature

  • Sieglinde Gstöhl : Governance Through Government Networks. The G8 and International Organizations. In: Review of International Organizations. Boston 2.2007, pp. 1-37, ISSN  1559-7431 .
  • Enrico Böhm : The Security of the West. Origin and function of the G7 summit (1975–1981). Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-75105-5 .
  • Klaas Schüller: The expansions of the G7. Power, wealth and ideas as determinants of institutional change. Peter Lang, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-631-74769-8 .

Web links

 Wikinews: Portal: G8  - in the news
Commons : G8  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Industrial powers ban Russia from the G8" , N-TV , March 25, 2014.
  2. Stephany Griffith-Jones, Amar Bhattacharya (Ed.): Developing Countries and the Global Financial System . Commonwealth Secretariat, 2001, ISBN 0-85092-675-0 , pp. 154 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ^ Peter I. Hajnal: The G8 System and the G20. Evolution, Role and Documentation . Ashgate Publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7546-4550-4 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  4. G8 strives for world governance . On Telepolis , May 28, 2009.
  5. What is the G8? The G8 as an informal forum ( Memento of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  6. See list of countries by gross domestic product
  7. Chart: How The G7 Should Really Look | Statista. Retrieved August 23, 2019 .
  8. population, total | World Bank Group. Retrieved August 24, 2019 .
  9. GNI (current US $) | World Bank Group. Retrieved August 24, 2019 .
  10. ^ Federal Government ( Memento of October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
  11. Declaration by the heads of state or government of the G7 and representatives of the European Union (PDF; 295 kB)
  12. bmwi.de ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 5.5 MB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmwi.de
  13. On the G-8 summit in Evian, 06.06.2003 (Peace Council). In: ag-friedensforschung.de. Retrieved November 19, 2016 .
  14. Pfaffenbach sees the economic situation as a major G-8 topic , Bernd Pfaffenbach according to Reuters
  15. Strategy of tension: Berlusconi sings for the G8 at Telepolis , February 3, 2009.
  16. ^ Declaration by the participants at the 38th G8 meeting , May 21, 2012.
  17. ^ British Prime Minister Cameron visits Chancellor Merkel. In: gov.uk. Retrieved November 19, 2016 .
  18. Carsten Volkery: Top meeting in Northern Ireland: G-8 summit struggles for a compromise on Syria . Spiegel Online, June 14, 2013, accessed on the same day.
  19. Tony Blair: My Way. Bertelsmann, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-570-10071-4 , here p. 604.
  20. Susanne Vogt: A progressive style that is waiting to be developed - global order policy between G-8 and G-20 . KAS International Information, May 2010, pp. 7–25.
  21. philip: Policy Innovation eV - Young, innovative, forward-looking. In: policy-innovation.org. February 21, 2018, accessed April 19, 2018 .
  22. Y7 Japan 2016. In: y7japan.org. Retrieved November 19, 2016 (Japanese).
  23. Badische-zeitung.de , April 30, 2016, Dominik Bloedner: Lisa Murken: "Bring in, bring forward solutions"
  24. Y7 Summit 2016 ( Memento from May 1, 2016 in the web archive archive.today ). In: policy-innovation.org .
  25. Charter of Principles of the World Social Forum on Wikisource