The 35th G8 summit was held in L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy, on 8–10 July 2009. It was originally to be held at Sardinian seaside city of La Maddalena, but it was moved to L'Aquila as part of an attempt to redistribute disaster funds after the devastating earthquake that April.
The locations of previous summits to have been hosted by Italy include: Venice (1980); Venice (1987); Naples (1994) and Genoa (2001).Smith, Diane. "2009 G8 Summit In La Maddalena, Italy," eFluxMedia (New York). 15 June 2007; 35th summit website: "Italy in the G8." The G8 summit has evolved beyond being a gathering of world political leaders. The event has become an occasion for a wide variety of non-governmental organizations, activists and civic groups to congregate and discuss a multitude of issues.Zablonski, Lukasz and Philip Seaton. "The Hokkaido Summit as a Springboard for Grassroots Initiatives: The 'Peace, Reconciliation & Civil Society' Symposium," The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (e-journal). ID No. 2973.
Overview The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada starting in 1976. The G8, meeting for the first time in 1997, was formed with the addition of Russia.Saunders, Doug. "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders," Globe and Mail (Toronto). 5 July 2008. In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally invited to summits since 1981 and participates in all but political discussion and talks.Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", 3 July 2008. The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the initial summit of the Group of Six (G6) in 1975.
The G8 summits during the 21st-century have inspired widespread debates, protests and demonstrations; and the two- or three-day event becomes more than the sum of its parts, elevating the participants, the issues and the venue as focal points for activist pressure."Influencing Policy on International Development: G8," BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development). 2008.
Leaders at the summit
The 35th G8 summit was the first summit for US President Barack Obama and was the last summit for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It was also the first and only summit for Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso.
Political changes in the G8 member nations were likely to affect the composition of the 35th G8 summit.Canseco, Mario. Angus Reid Global Monitor. 14 July 2008. France stated it wished China would become a full member by the time of the 37th G8 summit in 2011 was organized as France was the host member. However, this did not happen.Welch, David. "Canada has an opportunity to remake world summitry," Toronto Star. 18 July 2008. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced at the press conference at the end of the second day of the Hokkaido summit that the current number of participants would be maintained when the G8 leaders meet in 2009. Berlusconi also explained that a proposal to expand the G8 to include members of the Group of Five (G8+G5) emerging economies – China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa – had not found sufficient support."G8: Summit format to be maintained,"] ANSA (Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata – Società Cooperativa). 8 July 2008.
Participants These summit participants were the "core members" of the international forum:Rieffel, Lex. "Regional Voices in Global Governance: Looking to 2010 (Part IV)," Brookings. 27 March 2009; "core" members (Muskoka 2010 G-8, official site). 2008 L'Aquila G-8, delegations.2008 L'Aquila G-8, delegations; "EU and the G8"
Core G8 membersHost state and leader are shown in bold text. Member Represented by Title Canada Stephen Harper Prime Minister France Nicolas Sarkozy President Germany Angela Merkel Chancellor Italy Silvio Berlusconi Prime Minister Japan Tarō Asō Prime Minister Russia Dmitry Medvedev President United Kingdom Gordon Brown Prime Minister United States Barack Obama President European Union José Manuel Barroso Commission PresidentG8+5 Invitees (Countries) Member Represented by Title Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva President China Dai Bingguo State Councillor India Manmohan Singh Prime Minister Singapore Lee Hsien Loong Prime Minister Mexico Felipe Calderón President South Africa Jacob Zuma PresidentLimited Guest Invitees (Countries) Member Represented by Title Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika President Angola José Eduardo dos Santos President Australia Kevin Rudd Prime Minister Denmark Lars Løkke Rasmussen Prime Minister Egypt Hosni Mubarak President Ethiopia Meles Zenawi Prime Minister Malaysia Najib Tun Razak Prime Minister Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono President Libya Muammar Gaddafi Guide of the Revolution Netherlands Jan Peter Balkenende Prime Minister Nigeria Umaru Musa Yar'Adua President Senegal Abdoulaye Wade President South Korea Lee Myung-bak President Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero Prime Minister Sweden Fredrik Reinfeldt Prime Minister and European Council President Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Prime MinisterGuest Invitees (International Institutions) Member Represented by Title African Union Muammar Gaddafi Chairperson Jean Ping Commission President Commonwealth of Independent States Sergey Lebedev Executive Secretary Food and Agriculture Organization Jacques Diouf Director-General International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei Director General International Energy Agency Nobuo Tanaka Executive Director International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn managing director United Nations Ban Ki-moon Secretary-General UNESCO Kōichirō Matsuura Director-General World Bank Robert Zoellick President World Health Organization Margaret Chan Director-General World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy Director-General
Invited leaders A number of national leaders are traditionally invited to attend the summit and to participate in some, but not all, G8 summit activities.
The G8 plus the five largest emerging economies are known as G8+5, including: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mexican President Felipe Calderón, and South African President Jacob Zuma. Hu curtailed his participation following the eruption of ethnic rioting in Ürümqi. In his place, State Councilor Dai Bingguo led the Chinese delegation at the summit.
Previous G8 summits have invited other world leaders to participate; and the Italian duty Presidency invited a number of countries to participate in this summit."G8 Summit 2009 – Official Website – Other Countries" g8italia2009.it July 2009. "Italy says to host G20 leaders at July G8 summit," Reuters. 9 March 2009.
Italy's Berlusconi announced that his country was prepared to host leaders of the G20 on the third day of talks. The proposed purpose was to work towards developing new rules to stop the phenomenon of excessive securitization in the financial system and the use of derivatives that led to the 2008 financial crisis. Brown supported this proposal. "PM looks to G20 for economy deal," No. 10 Downing Street. 20 February 2009.
The Italian presidency of the G8 varies the summit's working methods and the numbers of participants depending on the subject under consideration. This "variable geometry structure" diverges from the traditional G8 format. The involvement of different actors at different stages goes further than the idea of a simple "G8+?". After an initial meeting of the "historic core" leaders of what is understood as the traditional G8), the agenda was broadened and the number of participants was expanded accordingly. The leaders of G8 countries and G5 countries were joined by a delegation from Egypt and a representative group of African countries.Frattini, Franco. "Summits of the ‘big’ countries growing in importance but the G8 continues to play a strategic role," Il Messaggero. 2 April 2009.
Some suggested that the G8's annual meetings be broadened to include the heads of states or governments of the other countries represented in the governing bodies of the Bretton Woods institutions along with the heads of the main multilateral organizations. This would convert the G8 summits into an informal "global governance council."Camdessus, Michel. "Africa: Open G8 to More Heads of Govt, Says Ex-IMF Chief," Africa Progress Panel (Geneva). 27 March 2009.
Priorities Traditionally, the host country of the G8 summit sets the agenda for negotiations, which take place primarily amongst multi-national civil servants known informally as "sherpas". Effective organization at the sherpa level is understood to be essential for the success of a summit meeting. UPI: "Italy Knocked for Alleged poor G8 Planning," 7 July 2009.
Issues
The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions. From Italy's perspective, the important thing is for the evolving G8 to avoid being too closely linked to serial emergency situations when there is no room for discussing broader issues.
The main themes of the Rambouillet summit in 1975 have persisted at the top of the world's agenda—avoiding protectionism, gaining energy independence, and boosting growth.Stewart, Heather and Larry Elliott. "Hopes fading for salvation at the summit," The Guardian (London). 22 March 2009. In March 2009, during a trip to São Paulo, Brazil,Norman, Laurence. "UK Mandelson: "Era of the G8 Is Over," Wall Street Journal (New York). 25 March 2009. Peter Mandelson, then British Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, expressed the opinion that "however long it might persist as a grouping, as a steering committee for the global economy, the era of the G8 is over". Russia had just invaded Georgia but was still invited to the Summit.
Schedule and Agenda Before the summit, Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi explained that the schedule of meetings would be very much like that of the Hokkaido summit, "My opinion is that it is best to keep together countries which share the same principles and I suggested that in 2009 the first day of the summit should see just the G8 meet. On the second day the table can be expanded in the morning to include the G5, with the G8+5 also discussing Africa, while the G8 would then meet alone in the afternoon to draw their conclusions. This program was unanimously accepted and will be used at the G8 summit in Italy."
The agenda for the 35th G8 summit included some issues which remain unresolved from previous summits. The process of finalizing the agenda moved forward when Berlusconi's began contacting his G8 counterparts shortly after Italy took over the rotating presidency on 1 January 2009. At this point, the Italian premier's office announced that Italy, as G8 host country, was planning to focus its initiatives on the economy, energy issues, sustainable development, and climate change. Other issues on the agenda might encompass disarmament, the fight against terrorism and peace efforts in world hot spots.Mu Xuequan. "Berlusconi, Merkel discuss financial crisis, gas row," Xinhua (Beijing). 10 January 2009. Global health issues and food were also proposed as suitable topics for discussion at the summit. Global health was first introduced as an agenda item nine years ago at the 26th G8 summit in 2000.Kurokawa, Kyoshi et al. "Italian G8 Summit: a critical juncture for global health," The Lancet (British Medical Association). Vol. 373, Iss. 9663 (14 February 2009), pp. 526–527.