WORLD> Backgrounder
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WORLD> Backgrounder
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History of the G8
(g8italia2009.it)
Updated: 2009-07-02 19:39 How the Topics Have Evolved The topics addressed by the Heads of State and Government at the G7 Summits were largely of an economic and financial nature in the first few years. Even now, the ministers of economic affairs and finance continue to meet in the G7 format, which preserves its own specific focus on their spheres of action compared with the G8. The agenda subsequently broadened, first in the form of the working parties and ministerial meetings, to take in new topics, such as health and nuclear power. The Italian-chaired Venice Summit also addressed strictly political issues, such as the military occupation of Afghanistan and terrorism, as full-fledged items on the agenda. As the topics and levels of cooperation have been extended, the final statements issued by the Heads of State and Government at the annual Summits have become increasingly wide-ranging and detailed. The statements are not binding, but they are important because the Heads of State and Government make political pledges at the highest political level, indicating the direction in which they intend to move together on crucial issues, such as finance, development, the environment and security. With the dawn of the nineties, capital market liberalisation combined with the rise of the emerging markets and the complexity of the new global challenges, such as the fight against poverty and development policies, urged the G8 to promote dialogue with the developing countries, and with Africa in particular. The Summit held in Germany in 2007 saw the launch of dialogue with the major emerging economies -- Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, which has been dubbed the Heiligendamm Dialogue Process (HDP) -- on four topics: investment, energy, innovation and development. The final report on the Dialogue Process will be submitted to the 2009 Summit. It will fall to Italy, in its capacity as Presidency of both the G8 and the Heiligendamm Process, to propose the format to be adopted by the G8 for continuing dialogue with the emerging economies. Its awareness of the global scale of climate change and of the pressing need for action has led the G8 to impart strong political thrust to the issue and actively to involve the emerging economies as well. At the initiative of the United States, the Major Economies Forum (MEF), a form of intensified dialogue among the major world economies, was launched in 2007 with a view to fostering a positive outcome for the UN negotiations on the future post-2012 agreement on climate. There are 16 countries taking part in the MEF: the G8 countries, the five major emerging economies (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) and Australia, South Korea and Indonesia.
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