29th G8 summit

29th G8 summit
File:Logo EVIAN 2003.gif 29th G8 Summit official logo
Host country	France
Dates	June 1 – June 3,

The 29th G8 summit took place in Évian-les-Bains, France, in June 2003. As is usual for G8 summits, there were a range of protests.

Composition of summit leaders

File:EVIAN famille4-2003.jpg

G8 official "family photo" at Évian summit, 2003.
Left to right: Prodi, Koizumi, Schröder, Chrétien, Putin, Chirac, Bush, Blair, Berlusconi, Simitis (see list to the left for details).

The core membership of the G8 has remained constant since Russia joined the talks at the 1997 summit in Denver.

Permanent

Leaders of the G8 members;

• Canada - Jean Chrétien
• France - Jacques Chirac
• Germany - Gerhard Schröder
• Italy - Silvio Berlusconi
• Japan - Junichiro Koizumi
• Russia - Vladimir Putin
• United Kingdom - Tony Blair
• United States - George W. Bush

Invited (partial participation)

File:EVIAN famille1 2003.jpg

G8 official "family photo" at Évian summit, 2003. G8 leaders plus others invited to attend and participate.

The leaders of a number of non-G8 countries were invited to the summit (Algeria, Brazil, China, Egypt, Greece, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa) as well as the President of the Swiss Confederation and representatives of the UN, the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO, providing a unique opportunity for an exchange of views on issues relating to sustained growth and international co-operation.

National leaders

• Algeria
• Brazil
• China
• Egypt
• Greece
• India
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• Nigeria
• Saudi Arabia
• Senegal
• South Africa
• Switzerland

Heads of international organizations

Leaders of the major international organizations were invited to attend the summit.

• United Nations
• European Union - Romano Prodi and Konstantinos Simitis
• File:World Bank Logo.png World Bank'
• International Monetary Fund
• File:Wto logo.png World Trade Organization

Priorities

Traditionally, the host country of the G8 summit sets the agenda for negotiations, which take place primarily amongst multi-national civil servants in the weeks before the summit itself, leading to a joint declaration which all countries can agree to sign.

Citizens' responses and authorities' counter-responses

Martin Shaw after his fall from the Aubonne bridge

The protests, as well as the usual demonstrations, included a protest at the Aubonne bridge in Switzerland between Lausanne and Geneva, in which two activists suspended themselves from the bridge via a rope, with the rope stretching across the bridge, halting traffic and displaying a banner. As well as arresting various protestors, the police also cut the rope, causing one of the protestors, Briton Martin Shaw, to plunge 20m into a rocky river, resulting in multiple fractures (the other activist, German Gesine Wenzel, was caught by other protestors and could later abseil safely). In January 2005, following a long campaign, a judge said that the police involved should be charged with causing bodily harm by negligence. However in a ruling on 17 February 2006 a judge has acquitted the two police officers found responsible on the grounds that their actions had been based on "a series of unfortunate misunderstandings" and therefore were not criminal 1 2.

See also

• G8

External links

Switzerland: charges dropped in the Aubonne bridge affair at Wikinews Switzerland: Policemen acquitted in the Aubonne bridge affair at Wikinews

• G8 Research Group: G8 Information Centre, University of Toronto
• Official G8 website: Évian

• Campaign relating to police behaviour at a protest at the Aubonne bridge
• Évian - Protest Reports & Photos