29th G8 Summit

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

Overview

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.Saunders, Doug
"Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders,"
''Globe and Mail'' (Toronto). July 5, 2008. In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981.Reuters
"Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?"
July 3, 2008. 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 Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the initial summit of the Group of Six ( G6) in 1975.Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998)
''Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations,'' p. 205.
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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.
BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development). 2008.

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.

The 29th G8 summit was the last summit for Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Participants

These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:

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 — 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.

Demonstrations, riots and authorities responses

During the protests, some manifestations went out of order as Swiss towns have been sacked by rioters. An accident also occurred during protest at the Aubonne bridge in Switzerland between Lausanne and Geneva, in which two activists suspended themselves from the bridge via a rope, with the rope stretching across the bridge, displaying a banner and obstructing traffic on the highway with the highest traffic density of Switzerland. Some protestors were arrested. One of the policemen, unaware people were attached to the rope, cut it. As a result, one of the protestors, Briton Martin Shaw, to plunge 20m into a rocky river and suffered multiple fractures. The other activist, German Gesine Wenzel, was caught by other protestors and could later abseil safely. In a ruling on 17 February 2006 a judge acquitted the two police officers found responsible on the grounds that their actions had been based on "''a series of unfortunate misunderstandings''" and therefore were not criminal. Indeed, as the anti-G8 manifestations were difficult to handle by their scales and by the seriousness of the disorders they caused many policemen (including the one who cut the rope) came from the German speaking part of Switzerland. The linguistic barriers, added to the stress of the situation (a blocked highway that could have resulted in many deaths) were considered by the court as critical in the misunderstandings that generated the accident.

Gallery

Core G8 participants

File:Jean Chrétien 2010.jpg, CanadaJean Chrétien, Prime Minister
File:ChiracUSA.jpg, FranceJacques Chirac, President
File:Gerhard Schröder (cropped).jpg, GermanyGerhard Schroeder, Chancellor
File:Berlusconi-2010-1.jpg, ItalySilvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister
File:Junichiro Koizumi 20010426.jpg, JapanJunichirō Koizumi, Prime Minister
File:Vladimir Putin - 2006.jpg, RussiaVladimir Putin, President
File:Tony Blair in 2002.jpg, United KingdomTony Blair, Prime Minister
File:George-W-Bush.jpeg, United StatesGeorge W. Bush, President
File:Romano Prodi in Nova Gorica (2b).jpg, European UnionRomano Prodi, Commission President
File:Simitis 6-9 December 2001-12 crop.jpg, Costas Simitis, Prime Minister of Greece and rotating Council President

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

External links

* Official G8 website

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

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