G7

This article covers the group of seven leading industrialized countries. For further meanings, see G7 (definition of terms ) .

Group of Seven
G7 member states (since 2014)
Germany  - Olaf Scholz France  - Emmanuel Macron Italy  - Mario Draghi Japan  - Fumio Kishida Canada  - Justin Trudeau United Kingdom  - Boris Johnson United States  - Joe Biden Observer: European Union
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 States	327.2	4.3	20,738.4	24.2
Japan	126.5	1.7	5,159.8	6.0
Germany	82.9	1.1	4,105.0	4.8
France	67.0	0.9	2,839.4	3.3
United Kingdom	66.5	0.9	2,790.0	3.3
Italy	60.4	0.8	2,094.2	2.4
Canada	37.1	0.5	1,688.4	2.0
G7	768	10.1	39,415	45.9
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	France	First oil crisis and the collapse of the Bretton Woods system
	2.	1976	G7 summit in San Juan 1976	United States
	3.	1977	G7 summit in London 1977	United Kingdom
	4th	1978	G7 summit in Bonn 1978	BR Germany	World economy, saving oil
	5.	1979	G7 summit in Tokyo 1979	Japan	Aircraft hijacking, Indochina - Refugee e
	6th	1980	G7 summit in Venice in 1980	Italy
	7th	1981	G7 Summit in Ottawa 1981	Canada
2	8th.	1982	G7 summit in Versailles 1982	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 States
	10.	1984	G7 London Summit 1984	United Kingdom
	11th	1985	G7 summit in Bonn 1985	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	Japan	Effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster , international terrorism, world economy
	13th	1987	G7 summit in Venice 1987	Italy
	14th	1988	G7 summit in Toronto in 1988	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	France
	16.	1990	G7 Houston Summit 1990	United States
	17th	1991	G7 London Summit 1991	United Kingdom
	18th	1992	G7 summit in Munich in 1992	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	Japan
	20th	1994	G7 summit in Naples 1994	Italy
	21.	1995	G7 Halifax Summit 1995	Canada
4th	22nd	1996	G7 summit in Lyon 1996	France
	23	1997	G7 summit in Denver 1997	United States
	24	1998	G8 Summit in Birmingham 1998	United Kingdom
	25th	1999	G8 summit in Cologne 1999	Germany	Environment, foreign policy, international financial policy, goals and efforts for lifelong learning, Cologne debt initiative
	26th	2000	G8 summit in Okinawa 2000	Japan	First participation of African heads of government, health, overcoming the global "digital divide"
	27	2001	G8 summit in Genoa 2001	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	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	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 States	International Terrorism, Development Aid, Near and Middle East
	31.	2005	G8 Summit in Gleneagles 2005	United Kingdom	Global climate change, economic development in Africa, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons
	32.	2006	G8 summit in Saint Petersburg 2006	Russia	Use of nuclear energy, Israel-Lebanon crisis
	33	2007	G8 summit in Heiligendamm 2007	Germany	Energy consumption, climate change, missile defense systems, aid for Africa
	34.	2008	G8 summit in Tōyako 2008	Japan	Financial crisis
	35.	2009	G8 summit in L'Aquila 2009	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	Canada	Financial crisis , economic crisis
6th	37.	2011	G8 summit in Deauville 2011	France	Nuclear power , Arab Spring
	38.	2012	G8 summit in Camp David 2012	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 Kingdom	Combating tax evasion , civil war in Syria
	40.	2014	G7 summit in Brussels 2014	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	Germany
	42.	2016	G7 summit in Ise-Shima 2016	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	Italy
	44.	2018	G7 summit in La Malbaie 2018	Canada
7th	45.	2019	G7 summit in Biarritz 2019	France
	46.	2020	G7 summit in Camp David 2020	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 Kingdom
	48.	2022	*	Germany
	49.	2023	*	Japan
	50	2024	*	Italy
	51	2025	*	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 States , United Kingdom , France , Federal Republic of Germany
1973	G5 (informal group)		Japan is added
1975	G6		Italy becomes a member
1976	G7		Canada becomes a member
1998	G8		Russia becomes a participant
2014	G7		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

See also : Junior 8

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

• European social forum
• Triad (economy)
• G8 + 5 , outreach / O5 countries (largest emerging countries)
• G10 (industrial nations)
• G15 (developing countries)
• G20 (a group of industrialized and emerging countries)
• G33 (one group each of industrialized / emerging countries and developing countries)
• Group of 77
• UN (the United Nations)

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

• G7 Information Center of the University of Toronto (English)
• Imperial get-together or global fire brigade - Contribution by Robert Kurz ( SWR2 Knowledge)
• G7, G8: Comparison of the number of demonstrators (1998-2015) - Katapult-Magazin

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) 
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