Group of Eight (G8)

Not to be confused with G7 (finance ministers).

"Group of Six" and "Group of Eight" redirect here. For other uses, see G6 (disambiguation) and G8 (disambiguation).

Group of Seven
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau France President François Hollande Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel Italy Prime Minister Matteo Renzi Japan Prime Minister Shinzō Abe Russia (suspended) President Vladimir Putin United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron United States President Barack Obama European Union Council President Donald Tusk Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker

The Group of Eight (currently known as Group of Seven) is a governmental political forum. It was originally formed by six leading industrial countries and subsequently extended with two additional members – one of which, Russia, has been suspended. Since 2014 in effect it comprises seven nations and the European Union.

The forum originated with a 1975 summit hosted by France that brought together representatives of six governments: France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, thus leading to the name Group of Six or G6. The summit became known as the Group of Seven or G7 in 1976 with the addition of Canada. The G7 is composed of the seven wealthiest developed countries on earth (by net national wealth or by GDP), and it remained active as a finance ministers' forum even during the period of the G8. Russia was added to the political forum from 1997, which then became known as the G8; Russia was, however, suspended in 2014. The European Union has been represented within the G8 since the 1980s but originally could not host or chair summits. The 40th summit was the first time the European Union was able to host and chair a summit.

"G8" can refer to the member states in aggregate 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 finance ministers (who meet four times a year), G8 foreign ministers, or G8 environment ministers.

Collectively, in 2012 the G8 nations composed 50.1 percent of 2012 global nominal GDP and 40.9 percent of global GDP (PPP). Each calendar year the responsibility of hosting the G8 is rotated through the member states in the following order: France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada. The holder of the presidency sets the agenda, hosts the summit for that year, and determines which ministerial meetings will take place. Both France and the United Kingdom have expressed a desire to expand the group to include five developing countries, referred to as the Outreach Five (O5) or the Plus Five: Brazil (7th country in the world by nominal GDP,) People's Republic of China (2nd country in the world by GDP,) India (10th country in the world by GDP,) Mexico, and South Africa. These countries have participated as guests in meetings that are sometimes called G8+5.

With the G-20 major economies growing in stature since the 2008 Washington summit, world leaders from the group announced at their Pittsburgh summit on September 25, 2009, that the group would replace the G8 as the main economic council of wealthy nations. The G7/G8 retains its role as a premier body for international security cooperation with the purpose of discussing global issues such as economic growth, crisis management, global security, energy, and terrorism.

On March 24, 2014, the original G7 nations voted to, in effect, suspend Russia from the organization in response to the country's annexation of Crimea; however, it was made clear that the suspension was temporary. Later on, the Italian Foreign Affairs minister Federica Mogherini and other Italian authorities, along with the EastWest Institute board member Wolfgang Ischinger, suggested that Russia may restore its membership in the group, adding that the return to the G8 format depends on Moscow and on Russian actions. In 2015, the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated that Russia will be able to return to G8 given that there's no further escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, and Russia continues collaborating with the West on the Syrian conflict.

History

At the 34th G8 Summit at Toyako, Hokkaido, formal photo during Tanabata matsuri event for world leaders—Silvio Berlusconi (Italy), Dmitry Medvedev (Russia), Angela Merkel (Germany), Gordon Brown (UK), Yasuo Fukuda (Japan), George W. Bush (U.S.), Stephen Harper (Canada), Nicolas Sarkozy (France), José Manuel Barroso (EU)—July 7, 2008.

The concept of a forum for the world's major industrialized countries emerged prior to the 1973 oil crisis. On Sunday, March 25, 1973, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, George Shultz, convened an informal gathering of finance ministers from West Germany (Helmut Schmidt), France (Valéry Giscard d'Estaing), and Britain (Anthony Barber) before an upcoming meeting in Washington, D.C. When running the idea past President Nixon, he noted that he would be out of town and offered use of the White House; the meeting was subsequently held in the library on the ground floor. Taking their name from the setting, this original group of four became known as the "Library Group". In mid-1973, at the World Bank-IMF meetings, Shultz proposed the addition of Japan to the original four nations, who agreed. The informal gathering of senior financial officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan, and France became known as the "Group of Five." During 1974 the heads of state or government of the top 10 industrial nations fell due to illness or scandal: There were two elections in the UK, three chancellors of West Germany, three presidents of France, three prime ministers of Japan and Italy, and two U.S. presidents; moreover, Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau was forced into an early election. Of the members of the Group of Five, all were new to the job with the exception of Pierre Trudeau.

As 1975 dawned, Schmidt and Giscard d'Estaing were heads of government in their respective countries, and since they both spoke fluent English, it occurred to them that they, and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and U.S. President Gerald Ford could get together in an informal retreat and discuss election results and the issues of the day. In late spring, Giscard invited the heads of government from West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States to a summit in Château de Rambouillet; the annual meeting of the six leaders was organized under a rotating presidency, forming the Group of Six (G6). In 1976, with Wilson out as prime minister of Britain, Schmidt and Gerald Ford felt an English speaker with more experience was needed, so Canada's Pierre Trudeau was invited to join the group and the group became the Group of Seven (G7). Since first invited by the United Kingdom in 1977 the European Union has been represented by the president of the European Commission, and the leader of the country that holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union and the Council President now also regularly attends.

Until the 1985 Plaza Accord no one outside a tight official circle knew when the seven finance ministers met and what they agreed. The summit was announced the day before and a communique was issued afterwards.

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 UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President Bill Clinton, President Boris Yeltsin was invited first as a guest observer, later as a full participant. It was seen as a way to encourage Yeltsin with his capitalist reforms. Russia formally joined the group in 1998, resulting in the Group of Eight, or G8.

Food

A major focus of the G8 since 2009 has been the global supply of food. At the 2009 L'Aquila summit, the G8's members promised to contribute $20 billion to the issue over three years. Since then, only 22% of the promised funds have been delivered.

At the 2012 summit, President Barack Obama plans to ask G8 leaders to adopt a policy that would privatize global food investment.

Crimean crisis and Russian suspension

On March 2, 2014, the remaining non-Russian G8 members, the European Union, and the European Commission suspended the planned G8 summit in the Russian city of Sochi and would instead meet as the G7 in Brussels, blaming Russia's role in the Crimean crisis. Following the suspension of the summit, on March 18 the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius claimed that Russia was suspended from the G8; however, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal clarified that Russia would remain a G8 member, and only the meeting would be suspended.

While visiting Kiev, Ukraine on March 22, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that he supports expelling Russia from the G8 and expects to discuss the potential expulsion with other G7 leaders at an upcoming meeting in The Hague. On March 24, G7 leaders met formally in The Hague, without Russia being present, and voted to officially suspend Russia's membership in the G8. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov stated earlier that day that the G8 was an informal organization and membership was optional for Russia.

Structure and activities

Leaders of the G8 on 18 June 2013, in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

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 member countries, with each new term beginning on 1 January of the year. The rotation order is: France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada. 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 include 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, People's Republic of 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.

Global energy

Main articles: International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation and Climate Investment Funds

G8 leaders confer during the 2009 summit in L'Aquila (Abruzzo, Italy).

At the Heiligendamm Summit in 2007, the G8 acknowledged a proposal from the EU for a worldwide initiative on efficient energy use. They agreed to explore, along with the International Energy Agency, the most effective means to promote energy efficiency internationally. A year later, on 8 June 2008, the G8 along with China, India, South Korea and the European Community established the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation, at the Energy Ministerial meeting hosted by Japan holding 2008 G8 Presidency, in Aomori.

G8 Finance Ministers, whilst in preparation for the 34th Summit of the G8 Heads of State and Government in Toyako, Hokkaido, met on the 13 and 14 June 2008, in Osaka, Japan. They agreed to the "G8 Action Plan for Climate Change to Enhance the Engagement of Private and Public Financial Institutions." In closing, Ministers supported the launch of new Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) by the World Bank, which will help existing efforts until a new framework under the UNFCCC is implemented after 2012. The UNFCCC is not on track to meeting any of its stated goals.

Annual summit

The annual G8 leaders summit is attended by the heads of government. The member country holding the G8 presidency is responsible for organizing and hosting the year's summit.

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.

	Date	Host	Host leader	Location held	Website	Notes
1st	November 15–17, 1975	France	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	Rambouillet (Castle of Rambouillet)		G6 Summit
2nd	June 27–28, 1976	United States	Gerald R. Ford	Dorado, Puerto Rico		Also called "Rambouillet II;" Canada joins the group, forming the G7
3rd	May 7–8, 1977	United Kingdom	James Callaghan	London		President of the European Commission is invited to join the annual G-7 summits
4th	July 16–17, 1978	West Germany	Helmut Schmidt	Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia
5th	June 28–29, 1979	Japan	Masayoshi Ōhira	Tokyo
6th	June 22–23, 1980	Italy	Francesco Cossiga	Venice		Acting Prime Minister Masayoshi Ito of Japan did not attend.
7th	July 20–21, 1981	Canada	Pierre E. Trudeau	Montebello, Quebec
8th	June 4–6, 1982	France	François Mitterrand	Versailles
9th	May 28–30, 1983	United States	Ronald Reagan	Williamsburg, Virginia
10th	June 7–9, 1984	United Kingdom	Margaret Thatcher	London
11th	May 2–4, 1985	West Germany	Helmut Kohl	Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia
12th	May 4–6, 1986	Japan	Yasuhiro Nakasone	Tokyo
13th	June 8–10, 1987	Italy	Amintore Fanfani	Venice
14th	June 19–21, 1988	Canada	Brian Mulroney	Toronto
15th	July 14–16, 1989	France	François Mitterrand	Paris
16th	July 9–11, 1990	United States	George H. W. Bush	Houston
17th	July 15–17, 1991	United Kingdom	John Major	London
18th	July 6–8, 1992	Germany	Helmut Kohl	Munich, Bavaria
19th	July 7–9, 1993	Japan	Kiichi Miyazawa	Tokyo
20th	July 8–10, 1994	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Naples
21st	June 15–17, 1995	Canada	Jean Chrétien	Halifax, Nova Scotia
22nd	June 27–29, 1996	France	Jacques Chirac	Lyon		International organizations' debut to G7 Summits periodically. The invited ones here were: United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.
23rd	June 20–22, 1997	United States	Bill Clinton	Denver		Russia joins the group, forming G8
24th	May 15–17, 1998	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	Birmingham
25th	June 18–20, 1999	Germany	Gerhard Schröder	Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia		First Summit of the G-20 major economies at Berlin
26th	July 21–23, 2000	Japan	Yoshiro Mori	Nago, Okinawa		Formation of the G8+5 starts, when South Africa was invited. Until the 38th G8 summit in 2012, it has been invited to the Summit annually without interruption. Also, with permission from a G8 leader, other nations were invited to the Summit on a periodical basis for the first time. Nigeria, Algeria and Senegal accepted their invitations here. The World Health Organization was also invited for the first time.
27th	July 20–22, 2001	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Genoa		Leaders from Bangladesh, Mali and El Salvador accepted their invitations here. Demonstrator Carlo Giuliani is shot and killed by police during a violent demonstration. 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.
28th	June 26–27, 2002	Canada	Jean Chrétien	Kananaskis, Alberta		Russia gains permission to officially host a G8 Summit.
29th	June 2–3, 2003	France	Jacques Chirac	Évian-les-Bains		The G8+5 was unofficially made, when China, India, Brazil, and Mexico were invited to this Summit for the first time. South Africa has joined the G8 Summit, since 2000, until the 2012 edition. Other first-time nations that were invited by the French president included: Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Switzerland.
30th	June 8–10, 2004	United States	George W. Bush	Sea Island, Georgia		A record number of leaders from 12 different nations accepted their invitations here. Amongst a couple of veteran nations, the others were: Ghana, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen and Uganda. Also, the state funeral of former president Ronald Reagan took place in Washington during the summit.
31st	July 6–8, 2005	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	Gleneagles		The G8+5 was officially formed. On the second day of the meeting, suicide bombers killed 52 people on the London Underground and a bus. Nations that were invited for the first time were Ethiopia and Tanzania. The African Union and the International Energy Agency made their debut here. 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.
32nd	July 15–17, 2006	Russia	Vladimir Putin	Strelna, St. Petersburg		First G8 Summit on Russian soil. Also, the International Atomic Energy Agency and UNESCO made their debut here.
33rd	June 6–8, 2007	Germany	Angela Merkel	Heiligendamm, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern		Seven different international organizations accepted their invitations to this Summit. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Commonwealth of Independent States made their debut here.
34th	July 7–9, 2008	Japan	Yasuo Fukuda	Toyako (Lake Toya), Hokkaido		Nations that accepted their G8 Summit invitations for the first time are: Australia, Indonesia and South Korea.
35th	July 8–10, 2009	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	L'Aquila, Abruzzo	[3]	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 accepted their invitations for the first time were: Angola, Denmark, Netherlands and Spain. A record of TEN (10) international organizations were represented in this G8 Summit. For the first time, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme, and the International Labour Organization accepted their invitations.
36th	June 25–26, 2010	Canada	Stephen Harper	Huntsville, Ontario		Malawi, Colombia, Haiti, and Jamaica accepted their invitations for the first time.
37th	May 26–27, 2011	France	Nicolas Sarkozy	Deauville, Basse-Normandie		Guinea, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire and Tunisia accepted their invitations for the first time. Also, the League of Arab States made its debut to the meeting.
38th	May 18–19, 2012	United States	Barack Obama	Initially Planned: Chicago Actual:Camp David	[4]	The summit was originally planned for Chicago, along with the NATO summit, but it was announced officially on March 5, 2012, that the G8 summit will be held at the more private location of Camp David and at one day earlier than previously scheduled. Also, this is the second G8 summit, in which one of the core leaders (Vladimir Putin) declined to participate. This G8 summit concentrated on the core leaders only; no non-G8 leaders or international organizations were invited.
39th	June 17–18, 2013	United Kingdom	David Cameron	Lough Erne, County Fermanagh	[5]	As in 2012, only the core members of the G8 attended this meeting. The four main topics that were discussed here were trade, government transparency, tackling tax evasion, and the ongoing Syrian crisis.
40th	June 4–5, 2014	Belgium	Initially Planned: Vladimir Putin Actual: Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso	Initially Planned: Sochi Actual: Brussels	[6] (EU) [7] (Russia)	G7 summit held as an alternative meeting without Russia in 2014 due to its association with the Crimean crisis. G8 summit did not take place in Sochi, Russia. G7 summit relocated to Brussels, Belgium.
41st	June 7–8, 2015	Germany	Angela Merkel	Schloss Elmau	[8]	Summit dedicated to focus on the global economy as well as on key issues regarding foreign, security and development policy
42nd	May 26–27, 2016	Japan	Shinzō Abe	Shima, Mie Prefecture
43rd	TBD, 2017	Italy	Matteo Renzi	TBD candidate: Florence
44th	TBD, 2018	Canada	Justin Trudeau	TBD
45th	TBD, 2019	France	TBD in 2017 Presidential Election	TBD
46th	TBD, 2020	United States	TBD in 2016 Presidential Election	TBD

Member facts

The G8 leaders at the 36th summit in Huntsville, Ontario. Left to right: Cameron, Van Rompuy (European Council), Harper, Medvedev, Kan, Berlusconi, Obama, Barroso (European Commission), Merkel, Sarkozy.

• 7 of the 7 top-ranked advanced economies with the largest GDP and with the highest national wealth (United States, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada) last century also known as G7
• 7 of the 15 top-ranked countries with the highest net wealth per capita (United States, France, Japan, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Germany)
• 8 of 12 top-ranked leading export countries.
• 6 of 10 top-ranked countries with the largest gold reserves (United States, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Japan).
• 8 of 11 top-ranked economies (by nominal GDP), according to latest (2012 data) International Monetary Fund's statistics.
• 5 countries with a nominal GDP per capita above US$40,000 (United States, Canada, Germany, France, United Kingdom).
• 5 countries with a sovereign wealth fund, administered by either a national or a state/provincial government (Russia, United States, France, Canada, Italy).
• 8 of 30 top-ranked nations with large amounts of foreign-exchange reserves in their central banks.
• 4 out of 9 countries having nuclear weapons (France, Russia, UK, United States). plus 2 countries that have nuclear weapon sharing programs (Germany, Italy).
• 7 of the 9 largest nuclear energy producers (United States, France, Japan, Russia, Germany, Canada, UK), although Germany announced in 2011 that it will close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022. Following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Japan shut down all of its nuclear reactors. However, in July 2012, Japan restarted two nuclear reactors at the Ōi Nuclear Power Plant. These reactors are the only ones currently in operation at this time.
• 8 of the 15 top donors to the UN budget for the 2013 annual fiscal year.
• 4 countries with a HDI index for 2013 of 0.9 and higher (United States, Germany, Japan, Canada).
• 2 countries with the highest credit rating from Standard & Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's at the same time (Canada and Germany).
• 2 countries that retain the death penalty in law and practice (Japan and the United States; Russia retains the death penalty, but the regulations of the Council of Europe prohibit it from carrying out any executions).
• 2 countries consist of islands and have left-hand traffic (Japan and the United Kingdom; in the US Virgin Islands, they have left-hand traffic to remain compatible with the British Virgin Islands, but the rest of the United States has right-hand traffic).
• In the G8 states, 6 languages have official status: English in 2 countries (Canada and United Kingdom), French in 2 countries (Canada and France), German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian in 1 country each (Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia).

Visa policy of the G8 states

Within the G8 states:

• Russia requires visas from the seven other countries, and Russian citizens needs visas for the seven other countries, so the citizens of no G8 member can visit all seven other countries visa-free.
• Canadians are the only G8 citizens who can travel to the United States without visa or ESTA. They can stay 6 months and work and study under simplified special procedure, while citizens from the other countries can stay for 3 months. Canada plans to introduce an electronic travel authorization for visa-free eligible nationals in April 2015.
• The United States , Japan , and Russia fingerprint all visitors

European members of G8:

• Being EU citizens, Britons, French, Germans, and Italians can live and work indefinitely in other EU countries and in the four EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway). The status of EU citizen in Switzerland has to be settled in an upcoming treaty after Swiss referendum banned unlimited European immigration.

G8 states and other countries:

Currently (2014),

• only Chileans and South Koreans have visa-free access to all G8 states (for the United States, ESTA is required, and Canada plans to introduce it in April 2015). On November 22, Canada lifted the visa requirement for Chilean citizens. The citizens of Israel can travel to seven G8 states visa-free, and the United States of America is discussing legislation that makes them eligible for ESTA.
• Japan is the only G8 member the citizens of which can travel visa-free to People's Republic of China.
  • citizens of only four countries can travel visa-free both to the People's Republic of China and the United States of America (ESTA): Brunei, Japan, San Marino, and Singapore.
• the United States of America is the only G8 member the citizens of which can travel visa-free to Equatorial Guinea.
• Russians can always travel visa-free to Kazakhstan. Britons, French, Germans, Italians, and US citizens (BUT NOT Canadians) can travel visa-free to Kazakhstan from July 15, 2014 until July 15, 2015. This is part of a no-visa pilot program, but Kazakhstan has announced not to continue the program after July 2015. Currently, Russia and North Korea are discussing a visa-free regime.
• Cuba grants of the G8 citizens only Russians visa-free entry (30 days). The citizens of the seven other countries must obtain a tourist card from a Cuban diplomatic mission before traveling. The tourist card grants maximum stay of 30 days (90 days in case of Canadian citizens) and can be extended once for the same period. Under Cuban Assets Control Regulations, all persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction must be licensed in order to engage in any travel-related transactions pursuant to travel to, from, and within Cuba.
• Britons, French, Germans, and Italians can visit Australia with the eVisitor online visa (no fee), citizens of Canada, Japan, and the United States of America need the ETA online visa (with fee). Russians need the Electronic Visitor visa (with fee).
• since November 27, citizens of Germany, Russia, and the United States of America have been eligible for online visas granted by India. Before that date, citizens of Japan had already been eligible for visas on arrival. (They are also eligible for online visas.) Citizens of Canada, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom will be eligible for online visas in the near future.

Travel freedom of G8 citizens (May 2014)

• Germany, United Kingdom (British Citizen Passport), United States: 174 countries visa-free / visa on arrival (Rank: 1)
• Canada: 173 countries visa-free / visa on arrival (Rank: 2)
• France, Italy, Japan: 172 countries visa-free / visa on arrival (Rank: 3)
• Russia: 100 countries visa-free / visa on arrival (Rank: 38)

Dual-citizenship policies of the G8 states

• Canada and the United States of America allow dual citizenship and are worldwide the only two industrialized democracies to grant unconditional birthright citizenship (even to children of illegal immigrants). In the United States, ESTA-eligible visitors must indicate whether they have several citizenships, and only "natural-born" citizens can be elected President or Vice President. The United States of America and the non-G8 member Eritrea are currently the only two countries worldwide to have citizenship-based taxation; contrary to some incorrect reports, China does not have such a system of taxation.
• France and the United Kingdom allow dual citizenship and have a restricted jus soli (at least one parent must be a citizen or a legal immigrant who has lived in the country for several years).

• Germany allows dual citizenship with other EU countries and Switzerland; dual citizenship with other countries is possible if obtained at birth or with special permission. For children of legal immigrants, there is a restricted jus soli: Children born on or after January 1, 2000 to non-German parents acquire German citizenship at birth if at least one parent has a permanent residence permit (and had this status for at least three years) and the parent was residing in Germany for at least eight years. The children must have lived in Germany for at least eight years or attended school for six years until their 21st birthday. Non-EU/non-Swiss-citizen parents born and grown up abroad usually cannot have dual citizenship themselves.
• Italy allows dual citizenship.
• Japan officially forbids dual citizenship. Japanese citizens who obtained a second citizenship at birth must choose one citizenship before the age of 22, or they will lose their Japanese citizenship. However, it is possible for Japanese citizens to currently have dual citizenship with another country, given special circumstances; for example, if one obtained dual citizenship prior to January 1, 1985, when the nationality law was enacted, one would retain said status into the present day.
• Russia allows dual citizenship, but the other citizenship must be reported to the officials.

With G8+5 and the G20

• all G8 countries became members of the unofficial trillion dollar club (countries with a nominal GDP in excess of US$1 trillion) by 2005. Today, 14 (out of the total of 15 so far) countries in the world are members of both the unofficial club and the G-20 major economies group.
• all of the G8, 15 (out of 19) of the G-20, and 12 (out of 13) G8+5-countries (minus South Africa) are among the 20 top-ranked nations by the amount of voting power and special drawing rights (SDRs) in the International Monetary Fund.
• All members of the G8, excluding Russia, and three G-20 nations not members of the G8, Australia, South Korea, and Argentina, have a HDI index of 0.8 or higher for 2013.

Influence of member nations

The G7/G8 is considered an informal forum of countries deserving the status of Great Powers. Together the eight countries making up the G8 represent about 14% of the world population, but they represent about 60% of the World wealth and 60% of the gross world product as measured by gross domestic product, all eight nations being within the top 12 countries according to the CIA World Factbook. (see the CIA World Factbook column in List of countries by GDP (nominal)), the majority of global military power (seven are in the top 8 nations for military expenditure), and almost all of the world's active nuclear weapons. In 2007, the combined G8 military spending was US$850 billion. This is 72% of the world's total military expenditures. (see List of countries and federations by military expenditures) Four of the G8 members, the United Kingdom, United States, France and Russia, together account for 96–99% of the world's nuclear weapons. (see List of states with nuclear weapons)

Criticism

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

Some criticism centres on the assertion that members of G8 do not do enough to help global problems such as Third World Debt, global warming and the AIDS epidemic—due to strict medicine patent policy and other issues related to globalization. In Unravelling Global Apartheid, the political analyst Titus Alexander described the G7, as it then was, as the 'cabinet' of global minority rule, with a coordinating role in world affairs.

The conservative Heritage Foundation has criticized the G8 for advocating food security without making room for economic freedom.

In 2015, despite Germany's immense efforts to prevent it and despite the remote location of the summit, the luxury hotel Schloss Elmau at the foot of the Wetterstein mountains at an altitude of 1008 m above sea level, about 300 of the 7500 peaceful protesters led by the group 'Stop-G7' managed to reach the 3 m high and 7 km long security fence surrounding the summit location. The protesters questioned the legitimation of the G7 to make decisions that could affect the whole world. Authorities had banned demonstrations in the closer area of the summit location and 20000 policemen were on duty in Southern Bavaria to keep activists and protesters from interfering with the summit.

Relevance

The G8's relevance is unclear. It still represents the major industrialized countries but critics argue that the G8 has now become unrepresentative of the world's most powerful economies. In particular, China has surpassed every economy but the United States, while Brazil has surpassed Canada and Italy (according to the IMF). Also according to the International Monetary Fund and the CIA World Factbook, India has already surpassed Canada, Italy, UK, Germany, France, and Japan in terms of purchasing power parity, although remaining on the 10th position when it comes to nominal GDP. This has given rise to the idea of enlarging G8 to the G8+5, which includes these other economically powerful nations. Other critics assert, however, that the concept of a country's net wealth is different from the nation's GDP.

With Vladimir Putin not attending the 2012 G8 summit at Camp David, Foreign Policy (FP) magazine argued that the summit has generally outlived its usefulness as a viable international gathering of foreign leaders. Another contributor of Foreign Policy magazine suggested that Russia should be excluded from the G8 altogether. Yet, a third FP contributor commented in 2012, that the G8 was still relevant, despite the increasing international power and prestige of the G-20 major economies leaders' summit.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said of the G8 in 2012:

Some people ask, does the G8 still matter, when we have a Group of 20? My answer is, yes. The G8 is a group of like-minded countries that share a belief in free enterprise as the best route to growth. As eight countries making up about half the world's gross domestic product, the standards we set, the commitments we make, and the steps we take can help solve vital global issues, fire up economies and drive prosperity all over the world.

Current leaders

See also: List of G8 leaders and Senior G8 leader

• 

  Canada
  Justin Trudeau,
  Prime Minister

• 

  France
  François Hollande,
  President

• 

  Germany
  Angela Merkel,
  Chancellor

• 

  Italy
  Matteo Renzi,
  Prime Minister

• 

  Japan
  Shinzo Abe,
  Prime Minister

• 

  United Kingdom
  David Cameron,
  Prime Minister

• 

  United States
  Barack Obama,
  President

• 

  European Union
  Donald Tusk,
  President of the
  European Council

• 

  European Union
  Jean-Claude Juncker,
  President of the
  European Commission

Suspended

• 

  Russia
  Vladimir Putin,
  President

Youth 8 Summit

The Y8 Summit or simply Y8, formerly known as the G8 Youth Summit is the youth counterpart to the G8 summit. The first summit to use the name Y8 took place in May 2012 in Puebla, Mexico, alongside the Youth G8 that took place in Washington, D.C. the same year.

The Y8 Summit brings together young leaders from G8 nations and the European Union to facilitate discussions of international affairs, promote cross-cultural understanding, and build global friendships. The conference closely follows the formal negotiation procedures of the G8 Summit. The Y8 Summit represents the innovative voice of young adults between the age of 18 and 35. The delegates jointly come up with a consensus-based written statement in the end, the Final Communiqué. This document is subsequently presented to G8 leaders in order to inspire positive change. The Y8 Summit is organised annually by a global network of youth-led organisations called The IDEA (The International Diplomatic Engagement Association). The organisations undertake the selection processes for their respective national delegations, while the hosting country is responsible for organising the summit. Now, several youth associations are supporting and getting involved in the project. For instance, every year, the Young European Leadership association is recruiting and sending EU Delegates.

The goal of the Y8 Summit is to bring together young people from around the world to allow the voices and opinions of young generations to be heard and to encourage them to take part in global decision-making processes.

	Summit	Year	Host country	Location held
1st	International Student Model G8	2006	Russia	Saint Petersburg
2nd	Model G8 Youth Summit	2007	Germany	Berlin
3rd	Model G8 Youth Summit	2008	Japan	Yokohama
4th	G8 Youth Summit	2009	Italy	Milano
5th	G8 Youth Summit	2010	Canada	Muskoka & Toronto
6th	G8 Youth Summit	2011	France	Paris
**	Y8 Summit	2012	Mexico	Puebla
7th	G8 Youth Summit	2012	USA	Washington D.C.
8th	Y8 summit	2013	UK	London
9th	Y8 summit	2014	Russia	Moscow*

• The Y8 Summit 2014 in Moscow was suspended due to the suspension of Russia from the G8.

See also

• BRIC
• BRICS
• Developing 8 Countries
• Forum for the Future (Bahrain 2005)
• G3 Free Trade Agreement
• G7
• G4 (EU)
• G-20 major economies
• Great Powers
• Group of Two
• Group of Eleven
• Group of 15
• Group of 24
• Group of 30
• Group of 77
• Junior 8
• List of countries by GDP (nominal)
• List of countries by military expenditures
• List of G8 summit resorts
• List of G8 leaders
• List of longest serving G8 leaders
• Next Eleven
• MINT (economics)
• World Social Forum
• North–South divide

Further reading

• Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2000). Hanging in There: The G7 and G8 Summit in Maturity and Renewal. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-1185-1; OCLC 43186692
• Haas, P.M. (1992). "Introduction. Epistemic communities and international policy coordination," International Organization 46,1:1–35.
• Hajnal, Peter I. (1999). The G8 system and the G20 : Evolution, Role and Documentation. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9780754645504; OCLC 277231920
• Kokotsis, Eleonore. (1999). Keeping International Commitments: Compliance, Credibility, and the G7, 1988–1995. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 9780815333326; OCLC 40460131
• Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-45085-7; OCLC 39013643

External links

• G8 Information Centre, G8 Research Group, University of Toronto
• "Special Report: G8", Guardian Unlimited
• "Profile: G8", BBC News
• "We are deeply concerned. Again", New Statesman, 4 July 2005, —G8 development concerns since 1977
• G8 Information Centre Finance Ministers Meetings
• "G8: Cooking the books won’t feed anyone", Oxfam International
• "Dear G8 Leaders, don’t lie about your aid", Oxfam International Blogs
• "Wait, the G-8 still exists?", Foreign Policy Magazine
• "Is this the last G-8 summit meeting?", Foreign Policy Magazine
• http://www.un.org/french/pubs/chronique/2006/numero1/0106p54.htm "The Group of Eight, ECOSOC and the Constitutional Paradox"
• No. of G8 Summit Protestors (1998-2015) Katapult-Magazin