G8

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Group of Eight
Map of G8 countries
Flag of Canada Canada
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Flag of France France
President Jacques Chirac
Flag of Germany Germany (holder of presidency)
Chancellor Angela Merkel
Flag of Italy Italy
Prime Minister Romano Prodi
Flag of Japan Japan
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Flag of Russia Russia
President Vladimir Putin
Flag of United Kingdom United Kingdom
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Flag of United States United States of America
President George W. Bush

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 state 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 2007 presidency belongs to Germany.

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[edit] Overview

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.

[edit] Yearly summit

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.

[edit] Economic power

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).

2004 Population GDP
  Millions of people % Billions of dollars %
World 6345.1 100.0 39833.6 100.0
Flag of United States United States 293.5 4.6 12179.9 30.7
Flag of Japan Japan 127.8 2.0 4749.9 11.9
Flag of Germany Germany 82.6 1.3 2749.0 6.3
Flag of United Kingdom United Kingdom 59.4 0.9 2136.4 5.2
Flag of France France 60.0 0.9 1858.7 4.7
Flag of Italy Italy 57.6 0.9 1503.6 3.8
Flag of Canada Canada 31.9 0.5 905.6 2.3
Flag of Russia Russia 142.8 2.3 487.3 1.2
G8 855.6 13.5 26270.4 66.1

Source: World Development Report 2006, World Bank

[edit] External links