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|Group of Eight|
The Group of Eight (G8) is a group made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission is also represented in the committee. The group has conferences or meetings throughout the year, it researches policies, and has a summit meeting once a year. The heads of government of each G8 country attend the summit meeting.
Each year a different country takes over the presidency of the group for the duration of the year. The country that holds the presidency sets the agenda for the year and hosts the summit for that year.
The G8 is not considered an international organization because it does not have administrative structure. This means that besides the president, there are no official titles for the members, they are all considered equal. Their meetings are not formal. The goal is to talk about global topics and problems in a relaxed manner.
There are many global problems and issues that can be discussed at meetings. Some common topics of discussion include: health, law enforcement, labor, economic and social development, energy, environment, foreign affairs, justice, terrorism, and trade.
Yearly summit [change]
The member country holding the G8 presidency is responsible for organizing and hosting the year's summit. It's usually held for three days in the middle of the year. The first summit meeting was held in November of 1975 in France.
Economic power [change]
The 8 countries that make up the G8 represent about 14% of the people in the world but produce over 65% of the world's economic output measured by gross domestic product (GDP).
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Source: World Development Report 2006, World Bank
Other websites [change]
- G8 research group, "G8 Research Group's Information Centre", utoronto.ca
- "Special Report: G8", Guardian Unlimited
- "Profile: G8", BBC News
- "We are deeply concerned. Again", New Statesman, 4 July 2005, - G8 development concerns since 1977