37th G8 summit

The **37th G8 summit** was held 26–27 May 2011 in the commune of Deauville in France.

## History

The Deauville summit of the Group of Eight (G8) was the 37th meeting in a series which began in 1976.

Previous G8 summits have been hosted by France at Rambouillet (1975); Versailles (1982); Paris (1989); Lyon (1996);  and Évian-les-Bains (2003).

The G8 and the summit are part of a consultation process.  The G8 is not an international organization. It is an informal group.

## Participants

These summit participants were the current "core members" of the G8:

|colspan=2|Member|Represented by|Title|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background:Gainsboro"|**Core G8 members** <small>Host nation and leader are indicated in bold text.</small>|||
|Canada|Stephen Harper|Prime Minister||
|**France**|**Nicolas Sarkozy**|**President**||
|Germany|Angela Merkel|Chancellor||
|Italy|Silvio Berlusconi|Prime Minister||
|Japan|Naoto  Kan|Prime Minister||
|Russia|Dmitry Medvedev|President||
|United Kingdom|David Cameron|Prime Minister||
|United States|Barack Obama|President||
|European Commission|Jose Manuel Barroso|President||
|European Council|Herman Van Rompuy|President||

### Invited leaders

Other national leaders are traditionally invited to attend the summit.  They participate in some, but not all, G8 summit activities.  African leaders who came to Deauville included:
- ***' Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President
- ***' Essam Sharaf, Prime Minister
- ***' Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister
- ***' Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President
- ***' Abdoulaye Wade, President
- ***' Jacob Zuma, President
- **** Beji Caid el Sebsi, Prime Minister

Also invited were:
- **Arab League** Amr Moussa, Chairman
- **African Union** (AU) Jean Ping, Chairman
- **New Partnership for Africa's Development** (NEPAD)
- **United Nations** Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General

## Schedule and Agenda

Traditionally, the host country of the G8 summit sets the agenda. French general priorities included peace and security.

Discussions included some issues which remained unresolved from previous summits.

Some of the specific topics on the agenda were:
- Afghanistan;
- G8 + Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA);
- The Internet: new challenges
- Non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction
- The G8's Partnership with Africa
- Transatlantic Cocaine Trafficking
- Counter-terrorism
- G8 political and security issues

World events caused the list of topics to grow, including
- Fukushima nuclear accident
- European debt crisis
- Selection of a new managing director for the International Monetary Fund

## Protesters and demonstrations

Protest groups and others organized public events. In these demonstrations, the slogan _G8 dégage_ ("G8 Go Away") was notable.

The demonstrators are widely understood to be against globalisation.

## Business opportunity

According to the Mayor of Deauville, "Our main interest is the economic implications."

For some, the G8 summit became a profit-generating event. For example, the _G8 Summit_ magazines have been published under the auspices of the host nations for distribution to all attendees since 1998.

## Related pages

- List of G8 summits

## Other websites

- University of Toronto: G8 Information Centre
- G20-G8 France 2011 , official website
- Parliament.uk, Graphic shows G8 in context