The 37th G8 summit was held 26–27 May 2011 in the commune of Deauville in France.[1]
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).[2]
The G8 and the summit are part of a consultation process. The G8 is not an international organization.[3] It is an informal group.[4]
These summit participants were the current "core members" of the G8:[5]
Core G8 members Host nation and leader are indicated in bold text. | |||
Member | Represented by | Title | |
---|---|---|---|
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Canada | Stephen Harper[6] | Prime Minister |
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France | Nicolas Sarkozy[7] | President |
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Germany | Angela Merkel[8] | Chancellor |
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Italy | Silvio Berlusconi[9] | Prime Minister |
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Japan | Naoto Kan[6] | Prime Minister |
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Russia | Dmitry Medvedev[7] | President |
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United Kingdom | David Cameron[7] | Prime Minister |
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United States | Barack Obama[7] | President |
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European Commission | Jose Manuel Barroso[7] | President |
European Council | Herman Van Rompuy[10] | President |
Other national leaders are traditionally invited to attend the summit.[2] They participate in some, but not all, G8 summit activities. African leaders who came to Deauville included:
Also invited were:
Traditionally, the host country of the G8 summit sets the agenda. French general priorities included peace and security.[15]
Discussions included some issues which remained unresolved from previous summits.[16]
Some of the specific topics on the agenda were:
World events caused the list of topics to grow, including
Protest groups and others organized public events.[28] In these demonstrations, the slogan G8 dégage ("G8 Go Away") was notable.[29]
The demonstrators are widely understood to be against globalisation.[29]
According to the Mayor of Deauville, "Our main interest is the economic implications."[30]
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.[31]