25th G8 summit
Official logo
Host countryGermany
Dates18–20 June 1999
Follows24th G8 summit
Precedes26th G8 summit

The 25th G8 Summit was held in Cologne, Germany, on 18–20 June 1999. The venue for this summit meeting was the Museum Ludwig in the central city.[1]

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.[2] In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981.[3] 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.[4]

The G8 summits since the late 1990s 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.[5] In 1999, a global Carnival Against Capital was organised by Peoples' Global Action. 4,000 people rioted in the City of London.[6]

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.[3]

The 25th G8 summit was the first summit for German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and was the last summit for Russian President Boris Yeltsin. It was also the first and only summit for Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema and Japanese Prime Minister Keizō Obuchi.

Participants

Family picture of the G8 leaders

These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:[7][1][8]

Core G8 members
Host state and leader are shown in bold text.
Member Represented by Title
Canada Canada Jean Chrétien Prime Minister
France France Jacques Chirac President
Germany Germany Gerhard Schröder Chancellor
Italy Italy Massimo D'Alema Prime Minister
Japan Japan Keizō Obuchi Prime Minister
Russia Russia Boris Yeltsin President
United Kingdom United Kingdom Tony Blair Prime Minister
United States United States Bill Clinton President
European Union European Union Manuel Marín Acting Commission President following the resignation of the Santer Commission
Gerhard Schröder Council President

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.

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.[4]

Business opportunity

For some, the G8 summit became a profit-generating event; as for example, the official G8 Summit magazines which have been published under the auspices of the host nations for distribution to all attendees since 1998.[9]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Summit Meetings in the Past.
  2. ↑ Saunders, Doug. "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders," Archived October 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Globe and Mail (Toronto). July 5, 2008.
  3. 1 2 Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", July 3, 2008.
  4. 1 2 Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations, p. 205.
  5. ↑ "Influencing Policy on International Development: G8," Archived May 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development). 2008.
  6. ↑ "On this day - 18 June - 1999: Anti-capitalism demo turns violent". bbc.co.uk. BBC. June 18, 1999. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  7. ↑ Rieffel, Lex. "Regional Voices in Global Governance: Looking to 2010 (Part IV)," Archived June 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Brookings. March 27, 2009; "core" members (Muskoka 2010 G-8, official site). Archived June 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ MOFA: Summit (23); G8 Research Group: Delegations; "EU and the G8" Archived February 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ Prestige Media: Archived May 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine "official" G8 Summit magazine Archived May 18, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

References

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