The 33rd G8 summit was held at Kempinski Grand Hotel, 6–8 June 2007. The summit took place in Heiligendamm, Bad Doberan, in the Northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on the Baltic Coast.Bradley, Kimberly. "A Spa Town Reclaims Its Glory," New York Times. 3 June 2007. The locations of previous G7 / G8 summits to have been hosted by Germany include Bonn (1978, 1985), Munich (1992), and Cologne (1999).
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 included in summits since 1981.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 G8 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The 33rd G8 summit was the first summit for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It was also the last for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi
Participants These summit participants are the current "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). 2006 St. Petersburgh G-8, delegations.http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/2006stpetersburg/delegations.html 2006 St. Petersburgh 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 Romano Prodi Prime Minister Japan Shinzō Abe Prime Minister Russia Vladimir Putin President United Kingdom Tony Blair Prime Minister United States George W. Bush President European Union José Manuel Barroso Commission President Angela Merkel Council PresidentGuest Invitees (Countries) Member Represented by Title Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika President Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva President China Hu Jintao General SecretaryPresident Ethiopia Meles Zenawi Prime Minister Ghana John Kufuor President India Manmohan Singh Prime Minister Mexico Felipe Calderón President Nigeria Umaru Musa Yar'Adua President Senegal Abdoulaye Wade President South Africa Thabo Mbeki PresidentGuest Invitees (International Institutions) Member Represented by Title African Union John Kufuor Commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konaré Chairperson Commonwealth of Independent States Nursultan Nazarbayev Executive Secretary International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei Director General United Nations Ban Ki-moon Secretary-General UNESCO Kōichirō Matsuura Director-General World Bank Paul Wolfowitz President World Health Organization Margaret Chan Director-General World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy Director-General
Priorities
Traditionally, the host country of the G8 summit sets the agenda for negotiations, which take place primarily amongst multi-national civil servants in the weeks before the summit itself, leading to a joint declaration which all countries can agree to sign.G8 Information Centre: Prospective agenda In any event, security for the world leaders and for the venue remained a high priority throughout.
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. The G8's traditional focus on macroeconomic issues and trade continued to be important, but this core was augmented by an expanded focus on the environment, meeting Millennium Development Goals and cross-border security issues like terrorism. Trans-national crime also remained in the forefront of summit issues.McLean, Iain et al. (2009).
Schedule and agenda At the end of the 32nd G8 summit in Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reported that the agenda of the G8 summit in 2007 had not been determined, but "the struggle against poverty across the globe will be a priority."
According to the official German Presidency website, the summit's motto was "Growth and Responsibility", focusing on "Investition, Innovation und Nachhaltigkeit (Investment, Innovation and Sustainability)", and "Africa: good governance, sustainable investment, peace and security".Official Agenda, g-8.de Transparency of the financial markets, intellectual property and energy efficiency will also be on the agenda, as well as talks about climate change.
On 13 April 2007, Oil Change International released a reported leaked draft of the economic communique. , draft of February 2007 The G8 financial ministers began pre-summit meetings on 30 May 2007."Ministers in talks for G8 summit", BBC News, 30 May 2007
Protests and demonstrations
As with all recent G8 summits, the event drew large protests, part of the anti-globalization movement. The main demonstration took place 2 June 2007 in the nearby city of Rostock and was the starting event for a week of protests and blockades. Organizers spoke of up to 80,000 participants, while police put the figure at an estimated 25,000."An Orgy of Violence as G8 Approaches; German City Rocked by Violent Riots," Der Spiegel. 2 June 2007. Towards the end of the 2 June protest, violent clashes occurred between protesters and the police, essentially limited to a small area at the harbor. Initially, these drew wide media overstatement, with initial reports claiming nearly 1000 people injured (433 German police officers, 30–33 of them requiring hospitalisation,Yahoo.de News: Zahl der verletzten Polizisten in Rostock auf 433 gestiegen and 520 protesters, 20 requiring hospitalisation). Later, these figures were disputed.Focus online: Rostock-Krawalle: Zahl der Verletzten zweifelhaft According to police estimates, 2,000 autonomists led the riots, setting fire to a total of 3 cars and setting up makeshift barricades; many peaceful protesters fled the action and ensuing police response in panic.German city rocked by violent riots – SPIEGEL.de international edition Over 1,000 protesters were detained, and nine of them were tried and condemned during the summit.European Democratic Lawyers (EDL): Press statement (in English) Hundreds were expelled. According to the European Democratic Lawyers NGO: The evidence collected in this manner was absolutely inconsistent and as previously noted everybody detained was released after brief periods of time. In fact it all amounts to an illegal system of mass-indexing and psychological terrorism. The police were aware that the judicial authority would not have confirmed these arrests but proceeded equally with a different objective. The aim was not to arrest presumed offenders but the indexing of a great number of demonstrators, the psychological intimidation of the protesters and the creation of false records to be used in other occasions.
A protest also occurred on 2 June 2007 on the river bank opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, principally a reminder of the G8's previous (and, as the protestors saw them, unfulfilled) promises on debt relief, entitled "G8 – The World Can't Wait" and "Wake Up To Poverty". It was a static protest, with small marches converging on in from Lambeth Park and Methodist Central Hall, on a route starting at the foot of Victoria Tower, along the riverbank of Victoria Tower Gardens, the north side of Lambeth Bridge, and the southern riverbank opposite Parliament as far as (but not including) Westminster Bridge. This principally involved the protesters setting off alarm clocks at 2 pm as a "wakeup call" to the G8, and passed without incident."Wakeup call" demonstration
Accomplishments
The G8 summit is an international event which is observed and reported by news media, but the G8's continuing relevance after more than 30 years is somewhat unclear.Lee, Don. "On eve of summit, G-8's relevance is unclear," Los Angeles Times. 6 July 2008. More than one analyst suggests that a G8 summit is not the place to flesh out the details of any difficult or controversial policy issue in the context of a three-day event. Rather, the meeting offers an opportunity to bring a range of complex and sometimes inter-related issues. The G8 summit brings leaders together "not so they can dream up quick fixes, but to talk and think about them together."Feldman, Adam. "What's Wrong With The G-8," Forbes (New York). 7 July 2008.
Global warming
In a non-binding communiqué issued on Thursday 7 June, it was announced that the G8 nations would 'aim to at least halve global CO2 emissions by 2050'. The details which would enable this salutatory goal to be achieved were left to be negotiated.Mark Landler and Judy Dempsey. "U.S. Compromise on Global Warming Plan Averts Impasse at Group of 8 Meeting," New York Times. 8 June 2007.
It was anticipated that the G8 Environment ministers would work together within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in a process that would also include the major emerging economies. Groups of countries would also be able to reach additional agreements on achieving the goal outside and in parallel with the United Nations process.Breakthrough on climate protection, G8 Summit 2007 Heiligendamm, published 7 June 2007. Retrieved 7 June 2007.
The G8 also announced their desire to use the proceeds from the auction of emission rights and other financial tools to support climate protection projects in developing countries.
The agreement was welcomed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair as 'a major, major step forward'.PM hails G8 climate change step Guardian Unlimited, published 7 June 2007. Retrieved 14 December 2015. French President Nicolas Sarkozy would have preferred a binding figure for emissions reduction to have been set.Sarkozy says would have preferred climate change target to be binding, Forbes, published 7 June 2007. Retrieved 14 December 2015. This was apparently blocked by US President George W. Bush until the other major greenhouse gas emitting countries, like India and China, make similar commitments.G8 leaders agree "substantial" greenhouse gas cuts, Reuters, published 7 June 2007. Retrieved 7 June 2007.
Missile defence system
En route to the summit, Bush attempted to assuage Russian concerns over US plans to construct a missile defense complex in Poland and the Czech Republic with remarks appearing to invite Russian participation in the project. At the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by suggesting that the radar installments for the proposed missile defence system be placed in Azerbaijan. Bush, in turn, responded by describing Putin's ideas as "an interesting suggestion".
G8+5 institutionalisation