The 29th G8 summit was held in Évian-les-Bains, France, on 1–3 June 2003. As is usual for G8 summits, there were a range of protests.

Overview

thumb|250px|right|[[Jacques Chirac, George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and Silvio Berlusconi during the G8 summit]]

thumb|200px|[[Mahathir Mohamad, Jean Chrétien, Vladimir Putin, and Thabo Mbeki during the G8 summit]]

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. In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981. 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 twenty-first 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.

Official G8 Summit magazines which have been published under the auspices of the host nations for distribution to all attendees since 1998; the 2008 edition was published by Prestige Media.

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.

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{| class="wikitable"

|-

|colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background:Gainsboro" |Core G8 members<br><small>Host state and leader are shown in bold text.</small>

|- style="background:LightSteelBlue; text-align:center;"

! colspan=2 | Member

! Represented by

! Title

|-

!

| Canada

| Jean Chrétien

| Prime Minister

|-

!

| France

| Jacques Chirac

| President

|-

!

| Germany

| Gerhard Schröder

| Chancellor

|-

!

| Italy

| Silvio Berlusconi

| Prime Minister

|-

!

| Japan

| Junichiro Koizumi

| Prime Minister

|-

!

| Russia

| Vladimir Putin

| President

|-

!

| United Kingdom

| Tony Blair

| Prime Minister

|-

!

| United States

| George W. Bush

| President

|-

!rowspan=2|

|rowspan=2| European Union

| Romano Prodi

| Commission President

|-

| Costas Simitis

| Council President

|-

|colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background:Gainsboro" |Guest Invitees (Countries)<br>

|- style="background:LightSteelBlue; text-align:center;"

! colspan=2 | Member

! Represented by

! Title

|-

!

| Algeria

| Abdelaziz Bouteflika

| President

|-

!

| Brazil

| Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

| President

|-

!

| China

| Hu Jintao

| General Secretary<br/>President

|-

!

| Egypt

| Hosni Mubarak

| President

|-

!

| Greece

| Costas Simitis

| Prime Minister

|-

!

| India

| Atal Bihari Vajpayee

| Prime Minister

|-

!

| Malaysia

| Mahathir Mohamad

| Prime Minister

|-

!

| Mexico

| Vicente Fox

| President

|-

!

| Nigeria

| Olusegun Obasanjo

| President

|-

!

| Saudi Arabia

| Abdullah

| Regent

|-

!

| Senegal

| Abdoulaye Wade

| President

|-

!

| South Africa

| Thabo Mbeki

| President

|-

!

| Switzerland

| Pascal Couchepin

| President

|-

|colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background:Gainsboro" |Guest Invitees (International Institutions)<br>

|- style="background:LightSteelBlue; text-align:center;"

! colspan=2 | Member

! Represented by

! Title

|-

!

| International Monetary Fund

| Horst Köhler

| Managing Director

|-

!

| United Nations

| Kofi Annan

| Secretary-General

|-

!

| World Bank

| James Wolfensohn

| President

|-

!

| World Trade Organization

| Supachai Panitchpakdi

| 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.

Reconciliation amongst the G8 leaders was the top priority in the wake of the beginning of the Iraq War. The G8 had sharply divided over the American-led invasion. Chirac's broad agenda was organized under four main themes &mdash; solidarity, responsibility, security, and democracy.

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.

Core G8 participants

<gallery class="center" widths="120">

File:Jean Chrétien 1993.jpg| CanadaJean Chrétien,<br />Prime Minister

File:Jacques Chirac (1997) (cropped).jpg| FranceJacques Chirac,<br />President (Host)

File:Berlusconi-2010-1.jpg| ItalySilvio Berlusconi,<br />Prime Minister

File:Junichiro Koizumi 20010426.jpg| JapanJunichirō Koizumi,<br />Prime Minister

File:Vladimir Putin official portrait (cropped).jpg| RussiaVladimir Putin,<br />President

File:Tony Blair 1997.jpg| United KingdomTony Blair,<br />Prime Minister

File:George-W-Bush.jpeg| United StatesGeorge W. Bush,<br />President

</gallery>

<gallery class="center" widths="90px">

File:Romano Prodi 1999 (cropped).jpg| European UnionRomano Prodi,<br />Commission President

File:Konstantinos Simitis 2012-01-23.jpg|Costas Simitis,<br />Prime Minister of Greece and rotating Council President

</gallery>

Notes

References

  • Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2005). Staying Together: the G8 summit Confronts the 21st Century. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing. ; OCLC 217979297
  • Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. ; ; OCLC 39013643
  • Official G8 website: Évian summit, 2003; n.b., no official website is created for any G7 summit prior to 1995 -- see the 21st G7 summit.
  • University of Toronto: G8 Research Group, G8 Information Centre
  • G8 2003, delegations & documents
  • Campaign relating to police behaviour at a protest at the Aubonne bridge
  • Évian - Protest Reports & Photos