The G8 summit


What is the G8 summit?
The G8 stands for the 'Group of Eight' nations. It started in 1975, when President Giscard d'Estaining of France invited the leaders of Japan, USA, Germany, United Kingdom and Italy to Rambouillet, near Paris, to discus the economic problems of the day. The group expanded to include Canada in 1976 and Russia in 1998.

Unlike many other international bodies, the G8 does not have a fixed structure or a permanent administrator.

What is the use of the G8 summit?
The G8 is unique in bringing together the key like-minded players from Asia, Europe and North-America. The leaders of the eight member countries discuss the major issues of the day. They seek to reach informal agreements on measures that they can take indivually, but in a cooperative manner, to achieve their goals more effectively. The main issues during our G8 summit are the global food crisis and the question of alternative energy.

The particular G8 summit during Lemun 2008
At Lemun there will be a simulation of a G8 summit, where all eight member countries and the European Union (who will be an observer member without vote) will take part in discussing nowadays issues. Every delegation will consist of two delegates.

This year, there will be some changes in the G8 procedures. These changes have been made to enhance the quality of debate and to make the committee more interesting. The major changes that have been made will be listed below:

• There will be more opportunities for lobbying during the conference. This to make achieving consensus more easy and to prevent extensive use of veto powers.
• Resolutions have been replaced by statements. In such a statement the reached consensus is stated in a more informal and lose manner than in a resolution.
• The amount of issues have been reduced. Last year we noted that only half of the available issues were discussed and therefore we chose to reduced the number of issues and ensure that the issue we have are suitable for thorough debate.

To be part of this summit, means you have to be well-prepared and willing to put a lot of effort and time in researching the point of views of the country you are representing. We would like to stress that the G8 is not a suitable committee for first time delegates or delegates who are not willing to prepare themselves properly!

We hope to develop this summit to a very interesting and educative experience, since we will be debating on a very high level, and in a very small group, on many important, major world problems.