Governmental Forums, Diplomacy, G7, G20, G77

The 2015 G-20 Antalya summit will be the tenth annual meeting of the G-20 heads of government.[1] It will be held in Antalya, a southwestern province of Turkey which is home to the country’s biggest international sea resort, on 15-16 November 2015. The venue has yet to be determined or announced.

Turkey officially took over the presidency of the G-20 from Australia in December 1, 2014 and China will preside over the organization in 2016. [2][3]

Possible participating leaders

• Argentina
  Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President

• Australia
  Tony Abbott, Prime Minister

• Brazil
  Dilma Rousseff, President

• Canada
  Stephen Harper, Prime Minister

• China
  Xi Jinping, President

• France
  François Hollande, President

• Germany
  Angela Merkel, Chancellor

• India
  Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

• Indonesia
  Joko Widodo, President

• Italy
  Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister

• Japan
  Shinzō Abe, Prime Minister

• Mexico
  Enrique Peña Nieto, President

• Russia
  Vladimir Putin, President

• Saudi Arabia
  Salman, King

• South Africa
  Jacob Zuma, President

• South Korea
  Park Geun-hye, President

• Turkey
  Ahmet Davutoğlu, Prime Minister

• United Kingdom
  David Cameron, Prime Minister

• United States
  Barack Obama, President

• European Union
  Donald Tusk, President of the European Council

• European Union
  Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission

Invited guests

• Azerbaijan
  Ilham Aliyev, President

• Singapore
  Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister

• Spain
  Mariano Rajoy, Prime Minister

• Malaysia
  Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister

• Zimbabwe
  Robert Mugabe, President

• Senegal
  Macky Sall, President

References

The cyber attack during the Paris G20 Summit refers to an event that took place shortly before the beginning of the G20 Summit held in Paris, France in February 2011. This summit was a Group of 20 conference held at the level of governance of the finance ministers and central bank governors (as opposed to the 6th G20 summit later that year, held in Cannes and involving the heads of government).

Unlike other well-known cyber attacks, such as the 2009 attacks affecting South Korean/American government, news media and financial websites, or the 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia, the attack that took place during the Paris G20 Summit was not a DDoS style attack. Instead, these attacks involved the proliferation of an email with a malware attachment, which permitted access to the infected computer.

Cyber attacks in France generally include attacks on websites by DDoS attacks as well as malware. Attacks have so far been to the civil and private sectors instead of the military.

Like the UK, Germany and many other European nations, France has been proactive in cyber defence and cyber security in recent years. The White Paper on Defence and National Security proclaimed cyber attacks as "one of the main threats to the national territory" and "made prevention and reaction to cyber attacks a major priority in the organisation of national security".[1] This led to the creation of the French Agency for National Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) in 2009. ANSSI's workforce will be increased to a workforce of 350 by the end of 2013. In comparison, the equivalent English and German departments boast between 500 and 700 people.

The attacks began in December with an email sent around the French Ministry of Finance. The email's attachment was a 'Trojan Horse' type consisting of a pdf document with embedded malware. Once accessed, the virus infected the computers of some of the government's senior officials as well as forwarding the offensive email on to others. The attack infected approximately 150 of the finance ministry's 170,000 computers. While access to the computers at the highest levels of office of infiltrated departments was successfully blocked, most of the owners of infiltrated computers worked on the G20.[2]

The attack was noticed when "strange movements were detected in the e-mail system". Following this, ANSSI monitored the situation for a further several weeks. [3]

Reportedly, the intrusion only targeted the exfiltration of G20 documents. Tax and financial information and other sensitive information for individuals, which is also located in the Ministry of Finance's servers, was left alone as it circulates only on an intranet accessible only within the ministry.

The attack was reported in news media only after the conclusion of the summit in February 2011, but was discovered a month prior in January.

While the nationalities of the hackers are unknown, the operation was "probably led by an Asian country". [4] The head of ANSSI, Patrick Pailloux, said the perpetrators were "determined professionals and organised" although no further identification of the hackers was made.[3]

• 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia
• Trojan horse (computing)

Young European Leadership (YEL)[1] is an international non-profit and nonpartisan organization composed of as well as founded by young Europeans. Its core mission is to empower the young generation to shape the future of Europe. Through YEL, young Europeans are able to participate in key decision-making processes and speak-up.

Following the Y8 and Y20 Summits in 2011 – previously called G8 & G20 Youth Summits- held in France, the organization YouthAEGIS has been founded. Its main goal was to recruit the delegates of the European Union for the next editions of the Y8 and Y20 Summits.

AEGIS was renamed Young European Leadership in 2012. The new association was legally established in Brussels as an AISBL (international non-profit organization) the year after.

YEL is a platform giving the possibility to young Europeans to influence decisions which concern young people in Europe and beyond. Aspiring leaders are brought into the position to speak up, address their concerns, and provide innovative solutions. This is why YEL trains young Europeans in leadership skills such as public speaking or negotiations skills. YEL is also a platform for networking. Young adults connect with each other but also with global decision-makers by participating to the Y8 and Y20 as well as other major European and international events. In this way, young people are ready to face positively and proactively the European crises and the challenges facing our world.

Young European Leadership organised the Young European Council (YEC) from 20 to 23 October 2014 in Brussels. It gathered students and young professionals from all over Europe to address three challenges: education to employment, digital revolution and technologies, and sustainable development in cities; exchanging with policy-makers from the European institutions and think-tank experts.

The Y8 and Y20 Summits[2] – formerly G8 and G20 Youth Summits[3] – are international youth conferences gathering young leaders. These Summits are the official youth counterpart to the Group of Eight (G8) and the Group of Twenty (20). The goal of the summits is to allow the young generation to speak up. Young adults are indeed able to provide solutions to the global agenda, promote cross-cultural understanding and build global friendships. The conclusions of the Summits are then passed on to international policy-makers to make the young people heard. This is why the Youth Summits are always scheduled in parallel to the G8 and G20.

The European Council Simulation[15][16] is a simulation[17] of the European Council for young people. The participants can get concrete insight into the European decision-making processes. The different national positions on various issues discussed at the European level such as energy, the question of the Euro or EU-bilateral relations, are covered. Through this exercise, the young adults have the chance to impersonate European leadership, gain extensive experience in negotiation, and have the ability to build strong and multicultural friendships with the other participants.

The role of YEL is not only the practical organization of the Council, but also to support the participants to face this experience at the best of their abilities.

The participants are also given the chance to discuss with key policy-makers: diplomats and experts and European and International Affairs.

The European Development Days is Europe's forum for international affairs and development cooperation. This initiative is sponsored by the European Commission and its premier goal is to consolidate the general view on development issues and create a unified approach to achieve a more effective international cooperation. During the forum, Heads of State, Nobel Laureates and YEL together with many other participants are present. The international delegation of YEL to the EDD 2013 blended in with 10 delegates, 6 young women, 4 young men, from Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, and the United States.

The YEL Society is a unique channel and platform for university students as well as young professionals, involved, or willing to be, in European and global politics. The Young European Leadership Society (YEL Society) believes that young people must be given the chance to design the world they are living in. Through this channel, young leaders can get involved in various projects through which they will acquire leadership skills.

• President: Tillmann Heidelk
• Vice-President: Zana Nanic
• Secretary General: Diana Carter
• Treasurer: Radoslav Šoth

In order to broaden its network and raise visibility on his work, YEL has several partners in Europe and worldwide.

European Partners:

• Future Lab Europe[18]
• Europe & Me[19]
• de:Young Initiative on Foreign Affairs and International Relations[20]
• Bringing Europeans Together Association (BETA)[21]
• Model European Union[22]
• Model NATO Youth Summit[23]

International Partner:

• United Nations Foundation
• The International Diplomatic Engagement Association (The IDEA) [24] YEL is the only supranational member of The International Diplomatic Engagement Association (The IDEA).

The following list of G-20 summits summarizes all Group of 20 conferences held at various different levels: heads of government, finance ministers and central bank governors , employment and labour ministers of the G-20 major economies, and others.

Locations in bold text indicate the meeting was concurrent with a G-20 summit.

• 2010: Washington, D.C., United States[18]
• 2011: Paris, France[19]
• 2012: Guadalajara, Mexico[20]
• 2013: Moscow[21]

B-20 summits are summits of business leaders from the G-20 countries.

• 2012: Los Cabos, Mexico
• 2013: Saint Petersburg[22]
• 2014: Sydney[23]
• 2015: Turkey[24]

C-20 summits are summits of civil society delegates from the G-20 countries.

• 2014: Melbourne[25]

T20 Summits are summits of the think tanks from the G-20 countries.

• 2012: Mexico City, Mexico
• 2013: Moscow[26]

• 2012: Mexico City, Mexico

• G-20 major economies

The 2014 G20 Brisbane summit was the ninth meeting of the G20 heads of government.[1] It was held in Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, Australia, on 15–16 November 2014. The hosting venue was the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre at South Brisbane.[2] The event was the largest ever peacetime police operation in Australia.[3]

On 1 December 2013 Brisbane became the official host city for the G20.[4] The City of Brisbane had a public holiday on 14 November 2014.[5] Up to 4,000 delegates were expected to attend with around 2,500 media representatives.[6] The leaders of Mauritania, Myanmar, New Zealand, Senegal, Singapore, and Spain were also invited to this summit.[7]

1. Agenda

European leaders expressed their desire to support the recovery as the global economy moves beyond the global financial crisis. European Commission President Barroso and European Council President Van Rompuy stressed the importance of coordinated growth strategies as well as finalising agreements on core financial reforms, and actions on tax and anti-corruption.

According to Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu the main objectives of the summit were to "provide strategic priority for growth, financial rebalancing and emerging economies, investment and infrastructure, and employment and labour mobility".

Professor of international finance law at the University of New South Wales Ross Buckley suggested that the summit should have emphasised the implementation of existing strategies rather than seeking agreement towards reforms.

Climate change was not included as a subject for discussion at the summit; Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott stated he did not want the agenda "cluttered" by subjects that would distract from economic growth. Officials from the European Union and United States of America were reported to be unhappy with this decision.

At each of the previous summits climate change was included on the agenda.

The Australian media stated that Australia will have had a significant effect on the agenda. Mike Callaghan, the director of the G20 Studies Centre at the Lowy Institute for International Policy has stated that if the G20 meeting was to attain significant outcomes it should focus on boosting infrastructure spending, multilateral trading systems and combating Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS).[13] The discussion on tax avoidance had been fueled by a disclosure of confidential tax agreements between more than 340 multinational corporations and Luxembourg (see also Luxembourg Leaks).

2. Preparations

The Prime Minister of Australia, at the time of the 2011 G20 Cannes summit, Julia Gillard, was asked to have Australia host the 2014 summit. Brisbane was selected over Sydney because the city was better equipped to cater for a significant increase in plane arrivals and the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre would be undertaking renovations at the time. The Parliament of Queensland passed the G20 (Safety and Security) Act 2013 on 29 October 2013.

The event involved a complex security operation. Event organisers needed to ensure that appropriate security measures were in place to protect visitors, while minimising disruptions to inner-city residents and businesses. About 6,000 police from Queensland, wider Australia and New Zealand ensured security at the event, and more than 600 volunteers provided assistance at the summit.

Roads between the central business district and the Brisbane Airport were temporarily closed. Around 1,500 security specialists including interstate and overseas personnel together with thousands of Queensland police made patrols. Public transport services were reduced in the central business district and surrounding suburbs. One wing in a major Brisbane hospital was reserved for the exclusive use of world leaders during the summit.

A secure, government wireless network was required for public safety communications during the summit. Telstra established the network in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Cairns before the event and later continued rolling it out across South East Queensland.

The Australian Government rented 16 bombproof Mercedes Benz S-Guard limousines specially for the summit at a cost of AU$1.8 million. Some world leaders however, including Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin planned to bring their own vehicles.

800 people were involved in a security exercise, which tested responses to security issues, crowd management and transport for over 10 hours on 6 October 2014. Actors portraying delegates were used, which involved a mock world leader arriving from a Qantas Boeing 737-800 at Brisbane International Airport into a 13-vehicle motorcade consisting of police motorbikes, police cars, sedans, vans, an SUV and a ute, which travelled from the airport to a Brisbane hotel.

The cost of hosting the event was estimated at around AU$400 million.

3. Associated meetings

G20 finance ministers and central bank governors met several times in 2014. Sydney hosted a meeting on 21–23 February 2014 followed by a meeting in Cairns, Queensland in September 2014.

At the September meeting participating countries agreed to automatically exchange tax information to reduce tax evasion.[26] Canberra hosted a meeting for G20 finance and central bank deputies in 2014.[27] The Youth 20 Summit was the official G20 youth event held in Sydney in July 2014.[28] A meeting of G20 trade ministers took place in Sydney during July, and the annual G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting was held in Melbourne during September. Officials-levels meetings of public servants took place throughout the year to prepare for the ministerial meetings.[29]

4. Security measures

A declared area took effect from 8 November with several restricted areas which were to be fenced and guarded by police.[30] Freedom of movement for ordinary citizens was restricted. According to the G20 (Safety and Security) Regulation 2014[31] and article 12 of the G20 (Safety and Security) Act 2013,[32] the restricted areas could have been changed at the Police Commissioner's or the Minister's request at any time during the proceedings. Residents living in these areas had to have a security clearance performed, and their car given a security pass. Residents not receiving a security clearance were forced to leave the area, but were paid accommodation expenses.

The G20 legislation suspended important civil liberties, including the absolute right to arrest without warrant, in addition to the Police Powers Act 2000, to detain people without charge, to predispose the courts into not giving arrested individuals bail, extensive searches of the person without warrant,[33] including strip searches, and the banning of common household items carried in public. Officers had the backing of increased penalties when lawful directions are not followed. The Peaceful Assembly Act of 1992 was suspended during the G20 meeting dates. Size of placards were strictly regulated, as was permission to protest, and the location of protests. Legal observers were in force to observe the use of police power during this time.[34] Heavy fines were enforceable due to the legislation. Most offenses carried between 50 and 100 penalty units worth of fines. A penalty unit in 2014 is $110.[35]

5. Attendance

This meeting was the first time an Argentine President could not be in attendance; Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was ill, and so was represented by Economy Minister Axel Kicillof.

6. Issues involving Russia

Opinion was divided both in Australia and elsewhere on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin should have been allowed to attend the G20 summit, following Russia's response to the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as well as pro-Russian actions in Ukraine earlier in the year.[36] Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, approached other G20 countries about banning Putin from the meeting, and stated that this consultation found that there was not the necessary consensus to exclude him.[37] A poll taken in July 2014 found 49% of Australians did not think Putin should be allowed to attend.[38] It was confirmed in September that Putin would attend, with Abbott stating that "The G20 is an international gathering that operates by consensus – it's not Australia's right to say yes or no to individual members of the G20".[39]

In November 2014, Russia sent a fleet of warships into international waters off the coast of Australia to accompany Putin's visit. The fleet consisted of Varyag, Marshal Shaposhnikov, a salvage and rescue tug, and a replenishment oiler. Australia responded by sending Stuart and Parramatta, as well as a P-3 Orion surveillance plane, to monitor the Russians.[40][41] Although Russia had previously sent warships to accompany presidential attendance at international summits, the size of fleet and the lack of official notification to the host country made this an unprecedented move.[42]

At the private leaders' retreat, held shortly before the official opening of the summit, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Russian President Vladimir Putin "I guess I'll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine." The incident occurred as Putin approached Harper and a group of G20 leaders and extended his hand toward Harper. After the event was over, a spokesman for the Russian delegation said Putin's response was: "That's impossible because we are not there."[43]

Participating leaders

•  

  Argentina
  Axel Kicillof, Minister of Economy

•  

  Australia
  Tony Abbott, Prime Minister

•  

  Brazil
  Dilma Rousseff, President

•  

  Canada
  Stephen Harper, Prime Minister

•  

  China
  Xi Jinping, President

•  

  France
  François Hollande, President

•  

  Germany
  Angela Merkel, Chancellor

•  

  India
  Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

•  

  Indonesia
  Joko Widodo, President

•  

  Italy
  Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister

•  

  Japan
  Shinzō Abe, Prime Minister

•  

  Mexico
  Enrique Peña Nieto, President

•  

  Russia
  Vladimir Putin, President

•  

  Saudi Arabia
  Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

•  

  South Africa
  Jacob Zuma, President

•  

  South Korea
  Park Geun-hye, President

•  

  Turkey
  Ahmet Davutoğlu, Prime Minister

•  

  United Kingdom
  David Cameron, Prime Minister

•  

  United States
  Barack Obama, President

•  

  European Union
  Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council

•  

  European Union
  Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission

Invited guests

•  

  Mauritania
  Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, President

•  

  Myanmar
  Thein Sein, President

•  

  New Zealand
  John Key, Prime Minister

•  

  Senegal
  Macky Sall, President

•  

  Singapore
  Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister

•  

  Spain
  Mariano Rajoy, Prime Minister

Outcomes

Following the summit, the G20 leaders released a joint communique summarising the points of agreement between them. This focused on economic concerns, highlighting plans to increase global economic growth, create jobs, increase trade and reduce poverty. The communique sets out a goal of increasing economic growth by an extra 2% through commitments made at the summit, and of increasing infrastructure investment through the creation of a four-year infrastructure hub, linking government, private sector, development banks and interested international organisations.

The communique also addressed the stability of global systems, mentioning measures to reduce risk in financial systems, improve the stability of banks, make international taxation arrangements fairer, reduce corruption and strengthen global institutions. Although the communique largely focused on economic concerns, other topics such as energy supply, climate change and the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa were also discussed.[44]

The Group of Seven (G7, formerly G8) is a governmental forum of leading advanced economies in the world. It was originally formed by six leading industrial countries and subsequently extended with two additional members, one of which, Russia, is suspended.[1][2][3][4] Since 2014, the G8 in effect comprises seven nations and the European Union as the eighth member.  The forum originated with a 1975 summit hosted by France that brought together representatives of six governments: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, thus leading to the name Group of Six or G6. The summit became known as the Group of Seven or G7 in 1976 with the addition of Canada. The G7 is composed of the seven wealthiest developed countries on earth (by national net wealth or by GDP, and it remained active even during the period of the G8. Russia was added to the group from 1998 to 2014, which then became known as the G8. The European Union was represented within the G8 since the 1980s but could not host or chair summits. The 40th summit was the first time the European Union was able to host and chair a summit.  

The first summit, with six countries participating (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States), was prompted by concerns about the global economy and oil supplies. It was held in 1975 in Rambouillet, France. Summits have focused on the global economy, international security, social development and issues of the day.

The host country organizes several preparatory meetings before the summit. G7 leaders’ personal representatives, known as Sherpas, attend these meetings to discuss potential agenda items. The Sherpas, usually high-ranking government officials, communicate directly with each other throughout the year. In 2015, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Sherpa for the Elmau Summit is Peter M. Boehm, Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Summit is a rare chance for the democratically elected Leaders of the G7 countries to meet, discuss common challenges, and decide on some common responses. 

2016 - Japan
2017 - Italy
2018 - Canada

4-5 June 2014 - Brussels (Belgium)

24 March 2014 – The Hague, The Netherlands

Between 1997–2013, the G7 met in G8 format as Russia was invited to join the group in recognition of the economic and democratic reforms it had undertaken at that time. In 2014, Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity led to suspension of participation in the G8, and a return to G7 format.

17-18 June 2013 - Lough Erne (United Kingdom)
18-19 May 2012 - Camp David (United States of America) 
26-27 May 2011 - Deauville (France)
25-26 June 2010 - Muskoka (Canada)
8-10 July 2009 - L'Aquila (Italy)
7-9 July 2008 - Hokkaido Toyako (Japan)
6-8 June 2007 - Heiligendamm (Germany)
15-17 July 2006 - St Petersburg (Russia)
6-8 July 2005 - Gleneagles, Scotland (United Kingdom)
8-10 June 2004 - Sea Island, Georgia (United States of America)
1-3 June 2003 - Evian (France)
26-27 June 2002 - Kananaskis (Canada)
20-22 July 2001 - Genoa (Italy)
21-23 July 2000 - Okinawa (Japan)
18-20 June 1999 - Okinawa (Japan) 
15-17 May 1998 - Birmingham (United Kingdom)
20-22 June 1997 - Denver (United States of America)
27-29 June 1996 - Lyon (France)
19-20 April 1996 - Moscow (Russia) - Nuclear Safety and Security Summit
15-17 June 1995 - Halifax (Canada)
8-10 July 1994 - Naples (Italy)
7-9 July 1993 - Tokyo (Japan)
6-8 July 1992 - Munich (Germany)
15-17 July 1991 - London (United Kingdom)
9-11 July 1990 - Houston (United States of America)
14-16 July 1989 - Paris (France)
19-21 June 1988 - Toronto (Canada)
8-10 June 1987 - Venice (Italy)
4-6 May 1986 - Tokyo (Japan)
2-4 May 1985 - Bonn (Germany)
7-9 June 1984 - London (United Kingdom)
28-30 May 1983 – Williamsburg (United States of America)
4-6 June 1982 – Versailles (France)
19-21 July 1981 - Ottawa (Canada)
22-23 June 1980 - Venice (Italy)
28-29 June 1979 - Tokyo (Japan)
16-17 July 1978 - Bonn (Germany)
6-8 May 1977 - London (United Kingdom)
27-28 June 1976 - Puerto Rico (United States of America)
15-17 November 1975 - Rambouillet (France) 

One can access information about Canada's relations with G7 partners by selecting country from the list below:

• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
• United Kingdom
• United States of America
• European Union

Date Modified:

2015-01-13

International monetary systems are sets of internationally agreed rules, conventions and supporting institutions, that facilitate international trade, cross border investment and generally the reallocation of capital between nation states. They provide means of payment acceptable between buyers and sellers of different nationality, including deferred payment. To operate successfully, they need to inspire confidence, to provide sufficient liquidity for fluctuating levels of trade and to provide means by which global imbalances can be corrected. The systems can grow organically as the collective result of numerous individual agreements between international economic factors spread over several decades. Alternatively, they can arise from a single architectural vision as happened at Bretton Woods in 1944.

Historical overview

Throughout history, precious metals such as gold and silver have been used for trade, termed bullion, and since early history the coins of various issuers – generally kingdoms and empires – have been traded. The earliest known records of pre - coinage use of bullion for monetary exchange are from Mesopotamia and Egypt, dating from the third millennium BC.[1] Early money took many forms, apart from bullion; for instance bronze Spade money which became common in Zhou dynasty China in the late 7th century BC. At this time, forms of money were also developed in Lydia, Asia minor, from where its use spread to nearby Greek cities and later to the rest of the world.[1]

Sometimes formal monetary systems have been imposed by regional rulers. For example scholars have tentatively suggested that the ruler Servius Tullius created a primitive monetary system in the archaic period of what was to become the Roman Republic. Tullius reigned in the sixth century BC - several centuries before Rome is believed to have developed a formal coinage system.[2]

As with bullion, early use of coinage is believed to have been generally the preserve of the elite. But by about the 4th century BC they were widely used in Greek cities. Coins were generally supported by the city state authorities, who endeavoured to ensure they retained their values regardless of fluctuations in the availability of whatever base precious metals they were made from.[1] From Greece the use of coins spread slowly westwards throughout Europe, and eastwards to India. Coins were in use in India from about 400BC, initially they played a greater role in religion than trade, but by the 2nd century had become central to commercial transactions. Monetary systems that were developed in India were so successful they spread through parts of Asia well into the Middle Ages.[1]

As multiple coins became common within a region, they were exchanged by moneychangers, the predecessors of today's foreign exchange market, as famously discussed in the Biblical story of Jesus and the money changers. In Venice and the Italian city states of the early Middle Ages, money changers would often have to struggle to perform calculations involving six or more currencies. This partly led to Fibonacci writing his Liber Abaci where he popularised the use of Indo-Arabic numerals, which displaced the more difficult Roman numerals then in use by western merchants.[3]

When a given nation or empire has achieved regional hegemony, its currency has been a basis for international trade, and hence for a de facto monetary system. In the West – Europe and the Middle East – an early such coin was the Persian daric. This was succeeded by Roman currency of the Roman empire, such as the denarius, then the Gold Dinar of the Ottoman Empire, and later – from the 16th to 20th centuries, during the Age of Imperialism – by the currency of European colonial powers: the Spanish dollar, the Dutch Gilder, the French Franc and the British Pound Sterling; at times one currency has been pre-eminent, at times no one dominated. With the growth of American power, the US Dollar became the basis for the international monetary system, formalized in the Bretton Woods agreement that established the post–World War II monetary order, with fixed exchange rates of currencies to the dollar, and convertibility of the dollar into gold. Since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, culminating in the Nixon shock of 1971, ending convertibility, the US dollar has remained the de facto basis of the world monetary system, though no longer de jure, with various European currencies and the Japanese Yen being used. Since the formation of the Euro, the Euro has gained use as a reserve currency and a unit of transactions, though the dollar has remained the primary currency.

A dominant currency may be used directly or indirectly by other nations – for example, English kings minted gold mancus, presumably to function as dinars to exchange with Islamic Spain; colonial powers sometimes minted coins that resembled the ones already used in a distant territory; and more recently, a number of nations have used the US dollar as their local currency, a custom called dollarization.

Until the 19th century, the global monetary system was loosely linked at best, with Europe, the Americas, India and China (among others) having largely separate economies, and hence monetary systems were regional. European colonization of the Americas, starting with the Spanish empire, led to the integration of American and European economies and monetary systems, and European colonization of Asia led to the dominance of European currencies, notably the British pound sterling in the 19th century, succeeded by the US dollar in the 20th century. Some, such as Michael Hudson, foresee the decline of a single basis for the global monetary system, and instead the emergence of regional trade blocs, citing the emergence of the Euro as an example of this phenomenon. See also Global financial systems, world-systems approach and polarity in international relations. It was in the later half of the 19th century that a monetary system with close to universal global participation emerged, based on the gold standard.

History of modern global monetary ordersThe pre WWI financial order: 1870–1914

From the 1870s to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the world benefited from a well integrated financial order, sometimes known as the First age of Globalisation.[4] [5] Money unions were operating which effectively allowed members to accept each other's currency as legal tender including the Latin Monetary Union (Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, France) and Scandinavian monetary union (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). In the absence of shared membership of a union, transactions were facilitated by widespread participation in the gold standard, by both independent nations and their colonies. Great Britain was at the time the world's pre-eminent financial, imperial, and industrial power, ruling more of the world and exporting more capital as a percentage of her national income than any other creditor nation has since.[6]

While capital controls comparable to the Bretton Woods System were not in place, damaging capital flows were far less common than they were to be in the post 1971 era. In fact Great Britain's capital exports helped to correct global imbalances as they tended to be counter cyclical, rising when Britain's economy went into recession, thus compensating other states for income lost from export of goods.[7] Accordingly, this era saw mostly steady growth and a relatively low level of financial crises. In contrast to the Bretton Woods system, the pre–World War I financial order was not created at a single high level conference; rather it evolved organically in a series of discrete steps. The Gilded Age, a time of especially rapid development in North America, falls into this period.

Between the World Wars: 1919–1939

The years between the world wars have been described as a period of de-globalisation, as both international trade and capital flows shrank compared to the period before World War I. During World War I countries had abandoned the gold standard and, except for the United States, returned to it only briefly. By the early 30's the prevailing order was essentially a fragmented system of floating exchange rates .[8] In this era, the experience of Great Britain and others was that the gold standard ran counter to the need to retain domestic policy autonomy. To protect their reserves of gold countries would sometimes need to raise interest rates and generally follow a deflationary policy. The greatest need for this could arise in a downturn, just when leaders would have preferred to lower rates to encourage growth. Economist Nicholas Davenport [9] had even argued that the wish to return Britain to the gold standard, "sprang from a sadistic desire by the Bankers to inflict pain on the British working class."

By the end of World War I, Great Britain was heavily indebted to the United States, allowing the USA to largely displace her as the worlds number one financial power. The United States however was reluctant to assume Great Britain's leadership role, partly due to isolationist influences and a focus on domestic concerns. In contrast to Great Britain in the previous era, capital exports from the US were not counter cyclical. They expanded rapidly with the United States's economic growth in the twenties up to 1928, but then almost completely halted as the US economy began slowing in that year. As the Great Depression intensified in 1930, financial institutions were hit hard along with trade; in 1930 alone 1345 US banks collapsed. [10] During the 1930s the United States raised trade barriers, refused to act as an international lender of last resort, and refused calls to cancel war debts, all of which further aggravated economic hardship for other countries. According to economist John Maynard Keynes another factor contributing to the turbulent economic performance of this era was the insistence of French premier Clemenceau that Germany pay war reparations at too high a level, which Keynes described in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace.

The Bretton Woods Era: 1945–1971

British and American policy makers began to plan the post war international monetary system in the early 1940s. The objective was to create an order that combined the benefits of an integrated and relatively liberal international system with the freedom for governments to pursue domestic policies aimed at promoting full employment and social wellbeing.[11] The principal architects of the new system, John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White, created a plan which was endorsed by the 42 countries attending the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference. The plan involved nations agreeing to a system of fixed but adjustable exchange rates where the currencies were pegged against the dollar, with the dollar itself convertible into gold. So in effect this was a gold – dollar exchange standard. There were a number of improvements on the old gold standard. Two international institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank were created; A key part of their function was to replace private finance as more reliable source of lending for investment projects in developing states. At the time the soon to be defeated powers of Germany and Japan were envisaged as states soon to be in need of such development, and there was a desire from both the US and Britain not to see the defeated powers saddled with punitive sanctions that would inflict lasting pain on future generations. The new exchange rate system allowed countries facing economic hardship to devalue their currencies by up to 10% against the dollar (more if approved by the IMF) – thus they would not be forced to undergo deflation to stay in the gold standard. A system of capital controls was introduced to protect countries from the damaging effects of capital flight and to allow countries to pursue independent macro economic policies [12] while still welcoming flows intended for productive investment. Keynes had argued against the dollar having such a central role in the monetary system, and suggested an international currency called bancor be used instead, but he was overruled by the Americans. Towards the end of the Bretton Woods era, the central role of the dollar became a problem as international demand eventually forced the US to run a persistent trade deficit, which undermined confidence in the dollar. This, together with the emergence of a parallel market for gold where the price soared above the official US mandated price, led to speculators running down the US gold reserves. Even when convertibility was restricted to nations only, some, notably France,[13] continued building up hoards of gold at the expense of the US. Eventually these pressures caused President Nixon to end all convertibility into gold on 15 August 1971. This event marked the effective end of the Bretton Woods systems; attempts were made to find other mechanisms to preserve the fixed exchange rates over the next few years, but they were not successful, resulting in a system of floating exchange rates.[13]

The post Bretton Woods system: 1971 – present

An alternative name for the post Bretton Woods system is the Washington Consensus. While the name was coined in 1989, the associated economic system came into effect years earlier: according to economic historian Lord Skidelsky the Washington Consensus is generally seen as spanning 1980–2009 (the latter half of the 1970s being a transitional period).[14] The transition away from Bretton Woods was marked by a switch from a state led to a market led system.[4] The Bretton Wood system is considered by economic historians to have broken down in the 1970s:[14] crucial events being Nixon suspending the dollar's convertibility into gold in 1971, the United States' abandonment of capital controls in 1974, and the UK's ending of capital controls in 1979 which was swiftly copied by most other major economies.

In some parts of the developing world, liberalisation brought significant benefits for large sections of the population – most prominently with Deng Xiaoping's reforms in China since 1978 and the liberalisation of India after her 1991 crisis.

Generally the industrial nations experienced much slower growth and higher unemployment than in the previous era, and according to Professor Gordon Fletcher in retrospect the 1950s and 60s when the Bretton Woods system was operating came to be seen as a golden age. [15] Financial crises have been more intense and have increased in frequency by about 300% – with the damaging effects prior to 2008 being chiefly felt in the emerging economies. On the positive side, at least until 2008 investors have frequently achieved very high rates of return, with salaries and bonuses in the financial sector reaching record levels.

The "Revived Bretton Woods system" identified in 2003International monetary systems over two centuries[16]

DateSystem

Reserve assets

Leaders1803–1873

BimetallismGold, silverFrance, UK1873–1914Gold standardGold, poundUK1914–1924Anchored dollar standardGold, dollarUS, UK, France1924–1933Gold standardGold, dollar, poundUS, UK, France1933–1971Anchored dollar standardGold, dollarUS, G-101971–1973Dollar standardDollarUS1973–1985Flexible exchange ratesDollar, mark, poundUS, Germany, Japan1985–1999Managed exchange ratesDollar, mark, yenUS, G7, IMF1999-Dollar, euroDollar, euro, yenUS, Eurozone, IMF

From 2003, economists such as Michael P. Dooley, Peter M. Garber, and David Folkerts-Landau began writing papers[17] describing the emergence of a new international system involving an interdependency between states with generally high savings in Asia lending and exporting to western states with generally high spending. Similar to the original Bretton Woods, this included Asian currencies being pegged to the dollar, though this time by the unilateral intervention of Asian governments in the currency market to stop their currencies appreciating. The developing world as a whole stopped running current account deficits in 1999 [18] – widely seen as a response to unsympathetic treatment following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. The most striking example of east-west interdependency is the relationship between China and America, which Niall Ferguson calls Chimerica. From 2004, This supposed "New Bretton Woods",[19] as a "fiction", and called for the elimination of the structural imbalances that underlie it, viz, the chronic US current account deficit.[20]

However since at least 2007 those authors have also called for a new de jure system: for key international financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank to be revamped to meet the demands of the current age,[21] and between 2008 to mid-2009 the term New Bretton Woods was increasingly used in the latter sense. By late 2009, with less emphases on structural reform to the international monetary system and more attention being paid to issues such as re-balancing the world economy.

Since 2011, Sanjeev Sanyal, a colleague of Dooley, Garber and Folkerts-Landau has taken the framework a step further to argue that periods of global economic expansions are almost always underpinned by symbiotic imbalances. Such imbalances cause distortions but are an inevitable part of expanding economic ecosystems. Thus, he argues that the next round of economic growth will again be underpinned by a return to global imbalances, probably with China supplying capital and the US again running deficits to absorb it. He names this relationship Bretton Woods III.[22]

Calls for a "New Bretton Woods"

Leading financial journalist Martin Wolf has reported that all financial crisis since 1971 have been preceded by large capital inflows into affected regions. While ever since the seventies there have been numerous calls from the global justice movement for a revamped international system to tackle the problem of unfettered capital flows, it was not until late 2008 that this idea began to receive substantial support from leading politicians. On September 26, 2008, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, then also the President of the European Union, said, "We must rethink the financial system from scratch, as at Bretton Woods."[23]

On October 13, 2008, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown [24] said world leaders must meet to agree to a new economic system:

“We must have a new Bretton Woods, building a new international financial architecture for the years ahead.”

However, Brown's approach was quite different from the original Bretton Woods system, emphasising the continuation of globalization and free trade as opposed to a return to fixed exchange rates.[25] There were tensions between Brown and Sarkozy, who argued that the "Anglo-Saxon" model of unrestrained markets had failed.[26] However European leaders were united in calling for a "Bretton Woods II" summit to redesign the world's financial architecture.[27] President Bush was agreeable to the calls, and the resulting meeting was the 2008 G-20 Washington summit. International agreement was achieved for the common adoption of Keynesian fiscal stimulus,[28] an area where the US and China were to emerge as the world's leading actors.[29] Yet there was no substantial progress towards reforming the international financial system, and nor was there at the 2009 meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos [30]

Despite this lack of results leaders continued to campaign for Bretton Woods II. Italian Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti said that Italy would use its 2009 G7 chairmanship to push for a "New Bretton Woods." He had been critical of the U.S.'s response to the global financial crisis of 2008, and had suggested that the dollar may be superseded as the base currency of the Bretton Woods system.[31] [32] [33]

Choike, a portal organisation representing southern hemisphere NGOs, called for the establishment of "international permanent and binding mechanisms of control over capital flows" and as of March 2009 had achieved over 550 signatories from civil society organisations. [34]

Competing ideas for the next international monetary system

SystemReserve assetsLeadersFlexible exchange rates[35]Dollar, euro, renminbiUS, Eurozone, ChinaSpecial drawing rights standard[36]SDRUS, G-20, IMFGold standard[37]Gold, dollarUSDelhi Declaration[38][39]Currency basketBRICS

March 2009 saw Gordon Brown continuing to advocate for reform and the granting of extended powers to international financial institutions like the IMF at the April G20 summit in London, [40] and was said to have president Obama's support .[41] Also during March 2009, in a speech entitled Reform the International Monetary System, Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People's Bank of China came out in favour of Keynes's idea of a centrally managed global reserve currency. Dr Zhou argued that it was unfortunate that part of the reason for the Bretton Woods system breaking down was the failure to adopt Keynes's bancor. Dr Zhou said that national currencies were unsuitable for use as global reserve currencies as a result of the Triffin dilemma – the difficulty faced by reserve currency issuers in trying to simultaneously achieve their domestic monetary policy goals and meet other countries' demand for reserve currency. Dr Zhou proposed a gradual move towards increased use of IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) as a centrally managed global reserve currency [42] [43] His proposal attracted much international attention.[44] In a November 2009 article published in Foreign Affairs magazine, economist C. Fred Bergsten argued that Dr Zhou's suggestion or a similar change to the international monetary system would be in the United States' best interests as well as the rest of the world's.[45]

Leaders meeting in April at the 2009 G-20 London summit agreed to allow $250 Billion of SDRs to be created by the IMF, to be distributed to all IMF members according to each countries voting rights. In the aftermath of the summit, Gordon Brown declared "the Washington Consensus is over".[46] However in a book published during September 2009, Professor Robert Skidelsky, an international expert on Keynesianism, argued it was still too early to say whether a new international monetary system was emerging.[14]

On Jan 27, in his opening address to the 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos, President Sarkozy repeated his call for a new Bretton Woods, and was met by wild applause by a sizeable proportion of the audience.[47]

In December 2011, the Bank of England published a paper arguing for reform, saying that the current International monetary system has performed poorly compared to the Bretton Woods system. [48]

In August 2012 in an International Herald Tribune op-ed, Harvard University professor and director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation Hal S. Scott called for a global response to the Euro-zone crisis. He wrote that two failures to address European problems around German power had led to world wars in the 20th century and that the current crisis was also beyond the capacity of Europe, with Germany again at the center, to solve on their own. Accepting that leadership transitions were underway in both China and America, Scott called on all concerned—with Japan included with China and America—to begin organizing a global restructuring through the International Monetary Fund with possibly a Bretton Woods II conference as part of the process. [49] MarketWatch commentator Darrell Delamaide endorsed Scott's idea but concluded "unfortunately it’s not likely to happen". He added first the example of the failure of Europe to address successfully the breakup of Yugoslavia without outside assistance as a reason for his endorsement. But he found U.S. presidential and Treasury Department leadership and IMF leadership dramatically lacking in the capacity to mount an initiative such as Scott proposed. [50]

See also

• Bretton Woods Project
• Eurodad
• Exchange rate regime
• Foreign exchange reserves
• Financial crisis of 2007–2010
• G20
• Global financial system
• Golden Age of Capitalism - for a comparison of the economic performance during the Bretton Woods and post Bretton Woods period
• History of money

The G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance (G20 YEA) is a collective of leading entrepreneurially-minded organizations representing the G20 countries who seek to promote youth entrepreneurship as a powerful driver of economic renewal, job creation, innovation and social change. The Alliance was founded as a movement to engage the G20 leaders in the cause of youth entrepreneurship, share information across borders, affect positive policy change and create a global network of young entrepreneur advocates while building a collaborative entrepreneurial environment worldwide. The first Summit was held in June 2010 in Toronto, Canada and the founding Chair was Vivian Prokop. CEO of The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF).

The G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance is represented by 19 of the 20 member nations who are members of the G-20. They are as follows:

Argentina: Represented by Jorge Rodriguez-Lascano, Fundacion Impulsar

Australia: Represented by Jeremy Liddle, Enterprise Network for Young Australians

Brazil: Represented by Francisco Jose Marins Ferreira, Servico Brasileiro de Apoio as Micro e Pequenas Empresas (founding member)

Canada: Represented by Vivian Prokop, Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) (founding member)

China: Represented by Rick Zou, Youth Business China

European Union: Represented by Dimitris Tsingos, YES for Europe - European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs (founding member)

France: Represented by Gregoire Sentilhes, Les Journees do l’Entrepreneur (founding member)

Germany: Represented by Christian Diehl, Junior Chamber International Germany

India: Represented by Bhairavi Jani, Young Indians (founding member)

Italy: Represented by Antimo Caputo, The National Federation of Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria (founding member)

Japan: Represented by Motohiko Goto, Junior Chamber International Japan

Mexico: Represented by Francisco Ruiz, Comision Nacional de Empresarios Jovenes de COPAMREX (founding member)

Russia: Represented by Victor Sedov, Centre for Entrepreneurship (founding member)

Saudi Arabia: Represented by Hesham Tashkandi, The Centennial Fund (founding member)

South Africa: Represented by Innocentia Motau, National Youth Development Agency

South Korea: Represented by Michael Lee, Young Entrepreneurs’ Society of Korea (founding member)

Turkey: Represented by Ferda Kertmelioglu, Young Businessmen Association of Turkey (founding member)

United Kingdom: Represented by Alex Mitchell, Institute of Directors (IoD) (founding member)

United States of America: Represented by Kevin Langley, Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) (founding member)

• Toronto, Canada, June 20–22, 2010

• Incheon, South Korea, November 7–9, 2010

• Istanbul, Turkey, May 6–9, 2011

• Nice, France, October 30 - November 2, 2011

• Mexico City, Mexico, June 3–5, 2012

• Moscow, Russia, June 15–17, 2013

• Sydney, Australia, July 18–22, 2014

• Ankara, Turkey, September 2015

• TBA, China, 2016

The Alliance’s communiqué was signed at the end of the Toronto, June 2010 meeting and was handed over to Senior Ministers from the Canadian Government prior to the Heads of State meeting. The communiqué in brief urges action in five areas:

• Access to funding: Governments therefore should support alternative mechanisms and institutions that provide young entrepreneurs with the capital they need to start and grow their businesses

• Coordinated support: Governments should encourage greater collaboration and cooperation among organizations across the public, private and non-profit sectors, both within our countries and across international boundaries

• Entrepreneurship culture: Examples of entrepreneurs who have overcome these and other challenges are role models that can serve as powerful teachers and we encourage our governments to find ways to share these positive examples

• Regulation and taxation: Governments should reduce the administrative burden for early-stage businesses founded by young entrepreneurs and enact tax measures that will encourage their growth

• Education and training: Governments should encourage entrepreneurial education that value real life experiences – in our schools, colleges and universities and through non-traditional, community-based means

The summit in Nice (2011) concluded with a formal request to the G20 Leaders to recognize in their final statement the importance of supporting entrepreneurship as a vital solution to the current economic crisis. The Summit also proposed that the G20 Leaders engage in a collaborative process with their governments to develop an “Entrepreneurs’ Declaration” alongside a pragmatic action plan to boost entrepreneurship within and across the G20 countries. The Entrepreneurs’ Declaration would be based on five founding principles:

• That G20 governments would recognize the socioeconomic role of entrepreneurship and the importance of encouraging the next generation of entrepreneurs and their role in job creation.

• That G20 governments would commit to implementing national and international policies that foster entrepreneurship and innovation.

• These policies would leverage traditional and nontraditional forms of capital (e.g. private savings and public guarantees, including those from multilateral organizations) to support entrepreneurs as they found and grow their businesses.

• These policies would recognize and address the unprecedented demographic and economic challenges we face in all our nations, in particular youth unemployment.

• The proposed measures would encourage entrepreneurship within and across G20 countries without distorting the marketplace or fostering unfair competition.

The summit in Mexico City (2012) concluded with the signing of a communiqué that called upon the G20 Leaders to focus on entrepreneurship as an answer to the issues we are currently facing around youth unemployment and slow economic growth. This communiqué was handed over directly to Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico and the host of the upcoming G20 Leaders Summit.

The communiqué identified five key actions that would provide the driver for inclusive economic growth, innovation, job creation and social cohesion:

• Creating a continuum of traditional and innovative funding sources with incentives through all stages of business growth

• Increasing access to simplified information and integrated youth enterprise support with strong knowledge and skills infrastructure

• Promoting a collaborative environment across private and public sectors, civil society and academia, that enables young entrepreneurs to start, grow, learn and have a second chance in business, within their countries and internationally

• Minimizing regulatory and tax barriers for start-up and early-stage businesses to reduce costs and increase efficiencies

• Fostering a stronger youth entrepreneurship culture through promoting and teaching entrepreneurship and raising awareness

The communiqué concluded by stating that the G20 YEA, are able and willing to work together with their respective governments to help ensure young entrepreneurs and their businesses can play their role in being the architects of the 21st century.

The Moscow G20 YEA summit official communique stated that "in times of economic crisis, structural changes and rising unemployment, we, the young entrepreneurs attending the 2013 G20 YEA Summit, paraphrasing the words of Cato the Elder, are ready to repeat emphatically “Crisis delenda est, Entrepreneurship est memorandum”!

The Communique included four main recommendation areas:

1. Access to digital infrastructure and services.

For emerging and growth ventures, digital infrastructure and electronic access to government services and payment networks is a necessary platform for future growth, innovation, and national and international cooperation

2. Education to provide knowledge, networks and innovation skills.

Human capital is the main factor of sustainable development in the post-industrial economy that increasingly depends on continuous innovation for growth and prosperity. Knowledge plays a key role in international competitiveness. Development of entrepreneurship in the sphere of innovation creates a growing need for staff with modern higher education. The quality of education determines the quality of entrepreneurship growth, and the two sides of the equation must develop together.

3. Business and labor legislation environment.

There is strong demand for easy-to-understand, employment-friendly labor laws, which are currently considered to be complex, rigid, a huge drain on SMEs in terms of both administrative resources and compliance, and high risk vis-à-vis hiring and laying-off employees. Any institutional changes should be directed toward the sustainable development and ability of SMEs to scale-up, which will lead to positive cumulative effects on the global economy as a whole.

4. Increasing access to finance for start-ups and enterprise growth.

Making credit markets work for start-ups, as well as for SMEs, is a policy prescription of long standing, and yet one that is often unrealized. Supporting the sustainability of enterprises converges with the objective of generating quality jobs. Access to finance is an important prerequisite to enterprise growth, be they newcomers to the market, or those seeking financing for a new type of product or service.

Adopting an academic approach to entrepreneurs' recommendations, the Moscow 2013 G20 YEA Summit communique was developed by the Institute for Applied Research in Facility Management in co-operation with the St. Petersburg State University of Economics (StPSUE), under the leadership of professor Igor Maksmitsev, Rector of StPSUE, and professor-protodeacon Andrey Kuraev. The communique was underpinned by an extensive report summarizing entrepreneurs' input across G20 countries.

For the first time in G20 YEA history recommendations of the Summit's communique became an integral part of the B20 Russia 2013 White Book (pages 52–53).

As a result of the Moscow 2013 G20 YEA Summit's work and the adopted communique, mention of youth entrepreneurship was, for the first time, included in paragraph 29 of St. Petersburg G20 Leaders Declaration):

"29. Promoting youth employment is a global priority. We are committed to quality apprenticeship and vocational training programmes, finding innovative ways to encourage firms to hire youth for example by, where appropriate, reducing non-wage labour costs, moving towards early intervention measures and effective job-search assistance for different groups of youth, and motivating youth entrepreneurship and business start-ups. Tailored strategies including youth guarantee approaches, developing school and university curricula that support entrepreneurship, and facilitating exchange of best practices among the G20 countries and the social partners are crucial in this respect."

Global structural unemployment is a crisis that disproportionately harms young people. Measures to increase youth employment and promote entrepreneurship will increase medium to long-term trend growth and productivity, thus reducing social risks. The nations of the world would improve the return on investment in education by reducing work skills mismatches.

The G20 YEA continues to endorse the G20’s call for specific, actionable recommendations to increase growth.

The young entrepreneurs of the world gathered at the Sydney G20 YEA Summit support the Australian G20 priorities on private sector led growth and greater resilience of the world economy. We call on the G20 Leaders, Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to focus on entrepreneurship and agree to implement policies, legislation and incentives for ecosystems that support start-ups and sustainable high growth[1] entrepreneurial SMEs, young entrepreneurs and enhance private sector led growth.

This agreement should commit to eight specific actions to underpin the pillars of building entrepreneurship ecosystems.

1. Reform global financial system to provide Investment & access to Capital

Facilitate the development of a methodology for financial institutions to provide affordable finance to SMEs, which should be accompanied by learning programs. Develop regulations to accommodate the development of new innovative forms of financing including online cross-border platforms and networks of investors and entrepreneurs, such as crowd sourced equity funding.

2. Education, training and business links

Promote close cooperation between the business and education sector to better link educational pathways with labour market needs and address the skills mismatch, with renewed focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education.

3. Entrepreneurship Culture

Install experiential entrepreneurship education programs in all layers of the education system with a focus on gender equality, values, ethics and business morals.

4. Innovation & Technology

Implement or expand legislation that incentivizes the commercialisation of innovation and new technology. Incentivise programs that connect research, development and commercialization organisations with entrepreneurs and SMEs.

5. Regulation and strengthening tax systems

Reduce regulatory and tax burden on labour for both employers and employees as well as reduce tax and regulations for creation of new companies.

6. Trade & Globalization

Create a G20 multilateral start-up visa to improve the ability of entrepreneurs to travel and conduct business internationally, and to increase labour mobility by allowing high and sustainable growth SMEs to hire overseas skilled labour more easily.

7. Attracting Private Infrastructure Investment

Ensure that government procurement processes are made more open to small businesses owned by young entrepreneurs.

8. Empower Development

Support the United Nations and ensure there is a major goal in the UN post 2015 development agenda on youth employment and entrepreneurship, especially young women. [2]

The Alliance’s charter was signed on 9 November 2010 in Incheon, South Korea and covered the following:

Vision

• A network that, through its discussions with governments, the media, the public and each other, champions the cause of young entrepreneurs at the local, national and international level

• An alliance of organizations from industrialized and developing economies that makes measurable progress towards its goal of a world where an increasing number of entrepreneurs grow businesses, create jobs, change lives and ensure future economic prosperity

• A recognized body that exists as part of the official G20 process and is able to engage, contribute to and impact the findings of the G20 to raise awareness and address the issues of emerging entrepreneurs across the globe

Belief

• As entrepreneurs found their businesses and change their own lives, they are important contributors to social change, job creation and economic renewal

• Strengthening the support of entrepreneurs and providing opportunities for international cooperation will help foster economic growth and development across the globe

• Advocating the cause of emerging entrepreneurs and promoting their importance will prepare the next generation for the renewal and growth of our economies and societies

• A recognized alliance of diverse organizations will empower our influence and legitimacy

• Supporting the dreams of these entrepreneurs is a top priority and should be an increasing priority for the governments of the G20

Commitment to young entrepreneurs

• Support and encourage young entrepreneurs across the globe

• Strengthen international cooperation and promote open and constructive discussion on key issues relating to the support and growth of young entrepreneurs

• Share information and resources among Members for the benefit of young entrepreneurs

• Engage the G20 and provide a forum for the discussion of issues found by young entrepreneurs

G20 Young Entrepreneur Alliance Signs Charter Outlining Commitment to Entrepreneurship

UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Blog from Business Zone

The Prince's Youth Business International

Blog from Institute of Directors

• 2010 G-20 Toronto summit

The G20, also known as the Group of 20 (and, occasionally, the G21, G23 or G20+) is a bloc of developing nations established on 20 August 2003. Distinct and separate from the G-20 major economies, the group emerged at the 5th Ministerial WTO conference, held in Cancún, Mexico, from 10 September to 14 September 2003. The G-20 accounts for 60% of the world's population, 70% of its farmers and 26% of world’s agricultural exports.[1]

Its origins date back to June 2003, when foreign ministers from Brazil, India and South Africa signed a declaration known as the Brasilia Declaration, on June 6, 2003 by Ministers of Brazil, South Africa and India [2][3] in which they stated that "major trading partners are still moved by protectionist concerns in their countries’ less competitive sectors [...] and emphasized how important it is that the results of the current round of trade negotiations provide especially for the reversal of protectionist policies and trade-distorting practices [...] Furthermore, Brazil, India and South Africa decided to articulate their initiatives of trade liberalization".

Nonetheless, the "official" appearance of the G20 occurred as a response to a text released on 13 August 2003 by the European Communities (EC) and the United States with a common proposal on agriculture for the Cancún Ministerial. On 20 August 2003 a document signed by twenty countries and re-issued as a Cancún Ministerial document on 4 September proposed an alternative framework to that of the EC and the United States on agriculture for the Cancún Meeting. This document marked the establishment of the G-20. The original group of signatories of the 20 August 2003 document went through many changes, being known as such different names as the G-21 or the G-22. The title G20 was finally chosen, in honor of the date of the group's establishment.

Since its creation, the group has had a fluctuating membership. Previous members have included: Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru, and Turkey. As of October 2008, the group had 23 members.

March 27, 2015

Political leaders and officials from around the world shape the work of the IMF through their various forums and bodies. With the IMF at the center of the coordinated global response to events in international financial markets and the world's economies, understanding what these groups do and how they work is important.

International Monetary and Financial Committee
Development Committee
Group of 7
Group of 10
Group of 15
Group of 20
Group of 24
Group of 77
Financial Stability Board
Creditor Clubs

Archive:
Group of 5
Group of 22
Group of 33

The IMFC advises and reports to the IMF Board of Governors on the supervision and management of the international monetary and financial system, including on responses to unfolding events that may disrupt the system. It also considers proposals by the Executive Board to amend the Articles of Agreement and advises on any other matters that may be referred to it by the Board of Governors. Although the IMFC has no formal decision-making powers, in practice, it has become a key instrument for providing strategic direction to the work and policies of the Fund.

The IMFC usually meets twice a year, in September or October at the Bank-Fund Annual Meetings and in March or April at what are referred to as the Spring Meetings. For each meeting, the Managing Director prepares a draft agenda that is discussed by the Executive Board, approved by the IMFC Chair, and formally adopted by the IMFC at the meeting. At the end of the meetings, the Committee issues a communiqué summarizing its views. These communiqués provide guidance for the IMF’s work program during the half year leading up to the next Spring or Annual Meetings.

The size and the composition of the IMFC mirror that of the Executive Board. The IMFC has 24 members who are central bank governors, ministers, or others of comparable rank and who are usually drawn from the governors of the Fund’s 188 member countries. Each member country that appoints an Executive Director and each group of member countries that elects an Executive Director appoints a member of the IMFC. The group is currently chaired by Agustín Carstens, Governor of Banco de México, who was selected to head the Committee in March 2015. The IMFC operates by consensus, including on the selection of its chairman. While there are no formal rules on term limits, since 2007 IMFC chairmen have been appointed for a term of three years. A number of international institutions, including the World Bank, participate as observers in the IMFC’s meetings.

IMFC Membership
Nationalities of current members:
Mexico (Chair)
Algeria
Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Chile
China France
Gabon
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Latvia
Nigeria Russia
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Switzerland
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Venezuela

The Joint Ministerial Committee of the Boards of Governors of the Bank and Fund on the Transfer of Real Resources to Developing Countries, better known as the Development Committee, was established in October 1974 to advise the Boards of Governors of the IMF and World Bank on critical development issues and on the financial resources required to promote economic development in developing countries. The Committee usually meets twice a year following the IMFC meeting.

The Development Committee has 25 members (usually ministers of finance or development) who together represent the full membership of the IMF and World Bank. The present chairperson is Marek Belka, President of the National Bank of Poland.

Development Committee Membership
Poland (Chair)
Bahrain
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
China
Côte d’Ivoire
France Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Korea
Morocco
Netherlands
Norway
Russia Saudi Arabia
South Africa
Switzerland
Thailand
United Kingdom
United States
Uganda
Uruguay
Venezuela, República Bolivariana de

Group of Seven

The Group of Seven (G7) major industrial countries began to hold annual economic summits (meetings at the level of head of state or government) in 1975. At the level of finance minister and central bank governor, the G7 superseded the G5 as the main policy coordination group during 1986–87, particularly following the Louvre Accord of February 1987, which was agreed by the G5 plus Canada and subsequently endorsed by the G7. Since 1987, the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors have met at least semi-annually to monitor developments in the world economy and assess economic policies. The Managing Director of the IMF usually participates, by invitation, in the surveillance discussions of the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors. The G7 continues to function as a forum for discussion of economic and financial issues among the major industrial countries.
G-7 Members
Canada Japan
France The United Kingdom
Germany The United States
Italy
Group of Ten

The Group of Ten (G10) refers to the group of countries that have agreed to participate in the General Arrangements to Borrow (GAB), a supplementary borrowing arrangement that can be invoked if the IMF's resources are estimated to be below member's needs. The GAB was established in 1962, when the governments of eight IMF members—Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and the central banks of two others, Germany and Sweden, agreed to make resources available to the IMF for drawings by participants and, under certain circumstances, for drawings by nonparticipants. The GAB was strengthened in 1964 by the association of Switzerland, then a nonmember of the IMF, but the name of the G-10 remained the same1. Following its inception, the G10 broadened its engagement with the Fund, including issuing reports that culminated in the creation of the Special Drawing Right (SDR) in 1969. The G10 was also the forum for discussions that led to the December 1971 Smithsonian Agreement following the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. The following international organizations are official observers of the activities of the G10: The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the European Commission, the IMF, and the OECD.
G10 Members
Belgium Netherlands
Canada Sweden
France Switzerland
Germany The United Kingdom
Italy The United States
Japan
Group of Fifteen

The Group of Fifteen (G15) was established at the Ninth Non-Aligned Summit Meeting in Belgrade, then Yugoslavia, in September 1989. It is composed of countries from Latin America, Africa, and Asia with a common goal of enhanced growth and prosperity. The G15 focuses on cooperation among developing countries in the areas of investment, trade, and technology. The membership of the G-15 has since expanded to 17 countries but the name has remained unchanged.
G15 Members
Algeria Indonesia Nigeria
Argentina Iran, Islamic Republic of Senegal
Brazil Jamaica Sri Lanka
Chile Kenya Venezuela, República Bolivariana de
Egypt Malaysia Zimbabwe
India Mexico
Group of Twenty

The Group of Twenty (G20), a group of key advanced and emerging market economies, has in recent years increasingly influenced the debate on the global economic and financial policy agenda. In response to the financial crisis in the late 1990s, the G20 was created in 1999 to strengthen policy coordination between its members, promote financial stability, and modernize the international financial architecture. Since its creation, the G20 has gradually become a major mechanism for international economic cooperation.

As the global economic crisis unfolded, and with the meetings of G20 Heads of State and Government in November 2008, and in April and September 2009, the G20 assumed an increasingly active role on global economic issues. This culminated in leaders designating the G20 as “the premier forum for our international economic cooperation” during their Pittsburg Summit. Although the scope of G20 discussions spans a broad range of topics, IMF policies are often at the heart of its deliberations. On issues related to global growth and international monetary and financial stability (e.g., reform of the international monetary system, quotas and governance, global financial safety nets), discussions in the G20 often take place in parallel with, or even precede, those in the IMF. More than half of the G20 countries hold the IMFC and Executive Director positions at the IMF. Even though agreements reached among the G20 members have no legal status or binding effects at the IMF, they carry a significant weight in the IMF’s decision-making process.

The membership of the G20 includes the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7, 12 other key countries, and the European Union, which is represented by the rotating Council Presidency and the European Central Bank. To ensure that global economic forums and institutions work together, the Managing Director of the IMF and the President of the World Bank plus the Chairs of the IMFC and the Development Committee also participate in G20 meetings on an ex officio basis. Turkey is the 2015 chair of the G20, to be followed by China in 2016.
G20 Members
Argentina France Japan South Africa
Australia Germany Korea, Republic of Turkey
Brazil India Mexico The United Kingdom
Canada Indonesia Russia The United States
China Italy Saudi Arabia European Union
Group of Twenty-Four

The Group of Twenty-Four (G24), originally a chapter of the G77, was established in 1971 to coordinate the positions of emerging markets and developing countries on international monetary and development finance issues and to ensure that their interests were adequately represented at the Bretton Woods Institutions, particularly in the IMFC and Development Committee meetings of the IMF and World Bank. The group—officially called the Intergovernmental Group of Twenty-Four on International Monetary Affairs and Development—is not an organ of the IMF but the IMF provides secretariat services for the Group. The Ministers of the Group meet twice a year, prior to the IMFC and Development Committee meetings. Although membership in the G24 is strictly limited to 24 countries, any developing country that is a member of the G77 can participate in the meetings as an Observer. China has been a “special invitee” since 1981. The Minister of Finance of Lebanon is the current chair of the G24.
G24 Members
Algeria Egypt Iran, Islamic Rep. of Philippines
Argentina Ethiopia Lebanon South Africa
Brazil Gabon Mexico Sri Lanka
Colombia Ghana Nigeria Syrian Arab Republic
Congo, Dem. Rep. of Guatemala Pakistan Trinidad and Tobago
Côte d’Ivoire India Peru Venezuela, República Bolivariana de
Group of Seventy-Seven

The Group of Seventy-Seven (G77) was established on June 15, 1964, by the “Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries” issued at the end of the first session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. It was formed to articulate and promote the collective economic interests of its members and to strengthen their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues in the United Nations system. The membership of the G77 has since expanded to 132 member countries but the original name has been retained because of its historical significance. The Chairmanship rotates on a regional basis (between Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean) and is held for one year. South Africa holds the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 in New York for the year 2015.
G77 Members
Afghanistan, Islamic Republic of Djibouti Libya São Tomé and Príncipe
Algeria Dominica Madagascar Saudi Arabia
Angola Dominican Republic Malawi Senegal
Antigua and Barbuda Ecuador Malaysia Seychelles
Argentina Egypt Maldives Sierra Leone
Bahamas, The El Salvador Mali Singapore
Bahrain Equatorial Guinea Marshall Islands Solomon Islands
Bangladesh Eritrea Mauritania Somalia
Barbados Ethiopia Mauritius South Africa
Belize Fiji Micronesia, Federated States of Sri Lanka
Benin Gabon Mongolia Sudan
Bhutan Gambia, The Morocco Suriname
Bolivia Ghana Mozambique Swaziland
Bosnia and Herzegovina Grenada Myanmar Syrian Arab Republic
Botswana Guatemala Namibia Tajikistan
Brazil Guinea Nepal Tanzania
Brunei Darussalam Guinea-Bissau Nicaragua Thailand
Burkina Faso Guyana Niger Timor-Leste
Burundi Haiti Nigeria Togo
Cambodia Honduras Oman Tonga
Cameroon India Pakistan Trinidad and Tobago
Cape Verde Indonesia Palestine Tunisia
Central African Republic Iran, Islamic Republic of Panama Turkmenistan
Chad Iraq Papua New Guinea Uganda
Chile Jamaica Paraguay United Arab Emirates
China Jordan Peru Uruguay
Colombia Kenya Philippines Vanuatu
Comoros Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of Qatar Venezuela, República Bolivariana de
Congo, Dem.
Rep. of
Kuwait Rwanda Vietnam
Congo, Rep. of Lao P.D.R. St. Kitts and Nevis Yemen
Costa Rica Lebanon St. Lucia Zambia
Côte d'Ivoire Lesotho St. Vincent and the Grenadines Zimbabwe
Cuba Liberia Samoa
Financial Stability Board

To strengthen the surveillance of financial markets, the G20 leaders decided in April 2009 to expand the membership of the former Financial Stability Forum (FSF) and renamed it the Financial Stability Board (FSB). The new membership includes all G20 countries, the former FSF members, Spain, and the European Commission.

The FSB is designed to help improve the functioning of financial markets, and to reduce systemic risk through enhanced information exchange and international cooperation among the authorities responsible for maintaining financial stability.

The FSF first met on April 14, 1999, at IMF headquarters, and has since then met semiannually. It was made an observer of the IMFC in September 1999.

Mark Carney, initially as Governor of the Bank of Canada and as of July 1, 2013 as Governor of the Bank of England, chairs the FSB in his personal capacity. The FSB consists of a Plenary, a Steering Committee, other committees and subgroups as needed, and a secretariat based in Basel, Switzerland. The Plenary is the decision-making organ of the FSB. Its members are the heads of members’ treasuries, central banks, and supervisory agencies; the chairs of the main standard-setting bodies and central bank committees; and senior representatives of international financial institutions (Bank for International Settlements, European Central Bank, European Commission, International Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and The World Bank). The Steering Committee provides operational guidance between plenary meetings to carry forward the directions of the FSB. Its composition is decided by the Plenary at the proposal of the Chair. The Plenary may establish Standing Committees and working groups as necessary.
Financial Stability Board Membership
Chairman (1)
National Authorities (24)
International Financial Institutions (6)
International Regulatory and Supervisory Groupings (6)
Committees of Central Bank Experts (2)
Creditors Club
Paris Club

The Paris Club is an informal group of official creditors, industrial countries in most cases, that seeks coordinated and sustainable solutions for debtor nations facing payment difficulties. Paris Club creditors provide debt treatments to debtor countries in form of rescheduling or reduction in debt service during a defined period or as of a set date. Although the Paris Club has no legal basis, its members agree to a set of rules and principles designed to reach a coordinated agreement on debt rescheduling quickly and efficiently. This voluntary gathering dates back to 1956, when Argentina agreed to meet its public creditors in Paris. Since then, the Paris Club and related ad hoc groups have reached 429 agreements covering 90 debtor countries. The Paris Club and the IMF have extensive contact because the Paris Club normally requires countries to have an active Fund-supported program to qualify for a rescheduling agreement.
London Club

The London Club is an informal group of commercial banks that join together to negotiate their claims against a sovereign debtor. The debtor initiates a process in which a London Club “Advisory Committee” is formed. The Committee is chaired by a leading financial firm and includes representatives from other exposed firms. Upon signing of a restructuring agreement, the Committee is dissolved.
Past Groups

With the passage of time, a number of committees, groups and clubs have changed or have been superseded. Some of these are archived in this section.
Group of Five

The Group of Five (G5) major industrial countries was established in the mid-1970s to coordinate the economic policies of France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. (These countries’ currencies also constituted the SDR, an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement the existing official reserves of member countries). The G5 was the main policy coordination group among the major industrial countries through the Plaza Agreement of September 1985. It was subsequently superseded by the G7.
Group of Twenty-Two

The establishment on a temporary basis of the Group of Twenty-Two (also referred to as the “Willard Group”) was announced by President Clinton and the other leaders of APEC countries at their meeting in Vancouver in November 1997, when they agreed to organize a gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors to advance the reform of the architecture of the global financial system. The G22 comprised finance ministers and central bank governors from the G7 industrial countries and 15 other countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand). It first met on April 16, 1998, in Washington, D.C., to examine issues related to the stability of the international financial system and effective functioning of global capital markets. It was superseded first by the G33 and then by the G20.
Group of Thirty-Three

The Group of Thirty-Three (G33) superseded the G-22 in early 1999, and was itself superseded by the G20 later in the year. Several seminars of the G33 on the international financial architecture were convened at the initiative of the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7. The first meeting was hosted by Germany in Bonn on March 11, 1999.

The G33 consisted of the finance ministers and central bank governors of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

1 The IMF also has a set of credit arrangements with members and institutions, the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), which became effective in November 1998. In March 2011, NAB participants ratified the expansion of the NAB up to SDR 367.5 billion (about $560 billion), once all new participants have adhered to the expanded NAB. In November 2011, Poland joined the NAB, bringing its total size to SDR370.0 billion (about $565 billion).

The 40th G8 summit was due to be held in Russia in 2014. The meeting was planned for June 4–5, 2014 at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.[2] However, the other seven countries decided on March 24 that a summit would be held without Russia, in Brussels, Belgium.[3] It was held in Brussels on June 4–5.[4][5]

Following 2014 Crimean crisis and accompanying Russian intervention in Crimea, there was talk of suspending or expelling Russia from the G8.[6][7] On March 24, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the meeting would not take place in Russia due to the Crimean crisis.[8][9]

The G8 is an unofficial forum which brings together the heads of major world powers: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, the United States, and Canada (all since 1976)[10] the EU Commission (since 1981) and Russia (until March 2014).[11] When the other seven countries decided to hold the 40th such meeting without Russia, the media dubbed it the 40th G7 summit.[3]

The attendees included the leaders of the seven G7 member states, as well as representatives of the European Union. The President of the European Commission is a permanently welcome participant in all meetings and decision-making since 1981.[11]

The 40th G7 summit was the first summit for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Traditionally, the host country of the G8 summit sets the agenda. Presidential Executive Office Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov was the chairman of the organizational committee on preparation for Russia's G8 presidency.[10] The leaders were expected to focus on responses to new global threats during the next G8 summit.[2] The infrastructure of the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi was planned to be used to host the G8 summit. No additional pre-summit costs were budgeted.[2]

Following the Crimean events in March 2014, Italy, Japan, Germany, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States as well as the President of the European Council and President of the European Commission suspended their participation in preparatory meetings for the G8. In their statement the leaders of the G7 countries stated that Russia's occupation of the Crimea was against the principles of the G7 and contravened the United Nations Charter and its 1997 basing agreement with Ukraine.[13]

On June 4, 2014 on G7 meeting in Brussels leaders of the G7 nations in their joint statement condemned Moscow for its «continuing violation» of Ukraine's sovereignty and say they are prepared to impose further sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine.[14]

The G7 summit on June 4–5, 2014 is the first since Russia was expelled from the group following its annexation of Crimea in March.[14]

• Canada
  Stephen Harper, Prime Minister

• France
  François Hollande, President

• Germany
  Angela Merkel, Chancellor

• Italy
  Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister

• Japan
  Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister

• United Kingdom
  David Cameron, Prime Minister

• United States
  Barack Obama, President

• European Union
  Herman Van Rompuy, Council President

• European Union
  José Manuel Barroso, Commission President

The President of the European Commission has attended since he was first invited to the third G7 summit in 1977, Roy Jenkins was the then-President.[2] Since 1981 the President has attended all sessions of the G7.[3] The EU is currently represented by the Commission President and the President of the European Council.[2] The latter used to be the rotating chair of the council of EU state leaders, with irregular attendance since 1982.[4] The Council Presidency sometimes coincided with one of the G8 members, in which case that leader attended with their national and European mandate.[2] Since 2009, the President of the European Council is a permanent position, who always attends the summits. As the EU is a member, what the Presidents endorse at the G8 is politically binding on them.[2]