37th G8 summit facts for kids

Traditional "family photo" at the G8 summit meeting in Deauville

The 37th G8 summit was held 26–27 May 2011 in the commune of Deauville in France.

History

The Deauville summit of the Group of Eight (G8) was the 37th meeting in a series which began in 1976.

Previous G8 summits have been hosted by France at Rambouillet (1975); Versailles (1982); Paris (1989); Lyon (1996); and Évian-les-Bains (2003).

The G8 and the summit are part of a consultation process. The G8 is not an international organization. It is an informal group.

Participants

G8 leaders walk to the first working session at summit in Deauville. Pictured, from left are: European Commission President Barroso; US President Obama; French President Sarkozy; Canadian Prime Minister Harper; Japanese Prime Minister Kan; German Chancellor Merkel; and British Prime Minister Cameron.

These summit participants were the current "core members" of the G8:

Member		Represented by	Title
Core G8 members Host nation and leader are indicated in bold text.
	Canada	Stephen Harper	Prime Minister
	France	Nicolas Sarkozy	President
	Germany	Angela Merkel	Chancellor
	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Prime Minister
	Japan	Naoto Kan	Prime Minister
	Russia	Dmitry Medvedev	President
	United Kingdom	David Cameron	Prime Minister
	United States	Barack Obama	President
	European Commission	Jose Manuel Barroso	President
	European Council	Herman Van Rompuy	President

Invited leaders

Other national leaders are traditionally invited to attend the summit. They participate in some, but not all, G8 summit activities. African leaders who came to Deauville included:

Algeria Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President
Egypt Essam Sharaf, Prime Minister
Ethiopia Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister
Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President
Senegal Abdoulaye Wade, President
South Africa Jacob Zuma, President
Tunisia Beji Caid el Sebsi, Prime Minister

Also invited were:

Arab League Amr Moussa, Chairman
African Union (AU) Jean Ping, Chairman
New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
United Nations Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General

Schedule and Agenda

Traditionally, the host country of the G8 summit sets the agenda. French general priorities included peace and security.

Discussions included some issues which remained unresolved from previous summits.

Some of the specific topics on the agenda were:

Afghanistan;
G8 + Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA);
The Internet: new challenges
Non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction
The G8's Partnership with Africa
Counter-terrorism
G8 political and security issues

World events caused the list of topics to grow, including

Fukushima nuclear accident
European debt crisis
Selection of a new managing director for the International Monetary Fund

Protesters and demonstrations

Front banner of the anti-G8 demonstration in Le Havre prior to the G8 summit, featuring the "G8 dégage" theme.

Protest groups and others organized public events. In these demonstrations, the slogan G8 dégage ("G8 Go Away") was notable.

The demonstrators are widely understood to be against globalisation.

Business opportunity

According to the Mayor of Deauville, "Our main interest is the economic implications."

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

Related pages

List of G8 summits