22nd G7 summit

22nd G7 summit
22st G8 summit official logo
Host country	France
Dates	June 27-29

The 22nd G7 Summit was held at the in Lyon, France between June 27 to 29, 1996. The venue for this summit meeting was the Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon (Musée d'art Contemporain de Lyon). The locations of previous summits to have been hosted by France include: Rambouillet (1975), Versailles (1982) and Paris (1989).

The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada (since 1976) and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 1981). The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's President Giscard d'Estaing and Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the first Group of Six (G6) summit in 1975.

A pre-summit was held in Moscow, Russia from April 19 to 20 to deal with nuclear security issues.

Leaders at the Summit

File:G8-lyon-1996-01.jpg

G7 "family photo" at the Lyon summit. From left are: Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto of Japan, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada, President Bill Clinton of the United States, President Jacques Chirac of France, Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany, Prime Minister John Major of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Romano Prodi of Italy and President Jacques Santer of the European Union.

Permanent G7 participants

• Canada - Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
• France - President Jacques Chirac.
• Germany - Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
• Italy - Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
• Japan - Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto,
• United Kingdom - Prime Minister John Major.
• United States - President Bill Clinton.

Invited (partial participation)

Others were invited to join in some of the summit's sessions included the Russian Prime Minister:

• Russia Victor Chernomyrdin, Prime Minister.

Also attending were the heads of a number of world financial institutions.

• United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General.
• International Monetary Fund Michel Camdessus, Directeur général.
• World Bank James D. Wolfensohn, President.
• World Trade Organization Renato Ruggiero, Director-General.
• European Union - Commission President Jacques Santer.

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. President Chirac suggested that the main theme of the summit should be globalization.

A French priority was the food; and the leaders did eat well. The first night of the three-day summit, they ate a dinner cooked by four chefs from towns and cities around Lyons whose restaurants have won three stars in the Michelin guide. In a serious speech in a related forum at Lyon, the IMF's leader observations about the financial consequences of globalization mirrored this focus on gastronomy when he asked lightly, "Is not France's intellectual -— and culinary! -— capital a supremely well chosen site for deeper reflection and more visionary thought?"

Issues

The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions. Issues which were discussed at this summit included:

• Strengthening Economic And Monetary Cooperation
• Promoting Strong And Mutually Beneficial Growth Of Trade And Investment
• Enhancing Our Approach To Employment Problems
• Implementing A New Global Partnership For Development: An Ambition For The 21st Century
• Enhancing The Effectiveness Of Multilateral Institutions For The Benefit Of Development
• Providing The Necessary Multilateral Support For Development
• Toward Successful Integration Of Countries In Transition Into The Global Economy

Accomplishments

This G7 summit was an international event was observed and reported by the world news media, with a resulting emphasis upon the worthy and the self-evident. The G7 summits have since mutated into media events, but a few long notable innovations began in this context:

Financial crisis and stability

Work in connection with G7 concern about financial market stability began at the Lyon summit. The 1995 collapse of Barings Bank demonstrated the fragile and interconnected nature of modern financial markets; and it suggested inherent dangers of contagion and systemic collapse following a single event. Subsequent meetings continued to explore the avenues for cooperation which were identified at Lyon.

Transnational organized Crime

Following the Halifax summit in 1995, a group of experts was brought together to investigate better ways to fight transnational crime. This group (later known as the "Lyon Group") proffered forty recommendations which were endorsed by the G7 heads of state at Lyon. The Lyon Group developed sub-groups to address specific crime-related issues (e.g., legal processes for evidence-sharing, high-tech crime, and immigration fraud and human trafficking); and these groups continued to work together in subsequent years..

Terrorism

In the wake of a terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia shortly before the summit began, President Clinton tried to encourage discussion about mitigating the growth of international terrorism. Clinton's push for adopting a 40-point list of recommendations against terrorism was good politics; but the elements were in fact only partly aimed at terrorism, being politically "recycled" from work of the task group on transnational crime. The Lyon " Declaration on Terrorism" that was issued immediately after the Working Dinner of the G-7 leaders on JUne 27th.

Budget

Summit organizers estimate the costs at about $4 million, but they expected the visitors to spend more than $5 million.

American spending was noteworthy. The U.S. delegation rented an entire hotel(167 rooms), which will serve as the unofficial White House during the Clintons' three-day stay. during the summit, the Sofitel Lyon Bellecour. Special modifications were made to accommodate the special requirements of the Americans. For example, one of the meeting rooms was specially equipped with more than 200 telephones, some of which were directly linked to the White House. The armored presidential limousine which was transported from Washington, D.C. via a jumbo jet; and it will be guarded and garaged at the hotel. Moreover, special generators were temporarily installed to accommodate extra electrical needs; and their capacity would be able to support lighting the entire city of Lyon.

See also

• G8

References

• Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2000). Hanging in There: The G7 and G8 Summit in Maturity and Renewal. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing. 10-ISBN 0-754-61185-X; 13-ISBN 978-0-754-61185-1; OCLC 43186692
• Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. 10-ISBN 0-415-16486-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-415-16486-3

External links

• No official website is created for any G7 summit prior to 1995 -- see the 21st G7 summit.
• University of Toronto: G8 Research Group, G8 Information Centre
  • G7 1996, delegations & documents