Leaders of the 33rd G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.
The '33rd
G8 summit' took place at
Kempinski Grand Hotel in
Heiligendamm in the old Duchy of
Mecklenburg in the Northern German state of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on the Baltic Coast, from
June 6 to
June 8 2007.
[1]
Leaders at the summit
★ '
Canada'
★
★ ''
Prime Minister'' '
Stephen Harper'
★ '
France'
★
★ ''
President'' '
Nicolas Sarkozy'
★ '
Germany'
★
★ ''
Chancellor'' '
Angela Merkel'
★ '
Italy'
★
★ ''
Prime Minister'' '
Romano Prodi'
★ '
Japan'
★
★ ''
Prime Minister'' '
Shinzo Abe'
★ '
Russia'
★
★ ''
President'' '
Vladimir Putin'
★ '
United Kingdom'
★
★ ''
Prime Minister'' '
Tony Blair'
★ '
United States'
★
★ ''
President'' '
George W. Bush'
★ '
European Union'
★
★ ''
President of the European Commission'' '
José Manuel Barroso'
===
G8+5 participants===
★ '
Brazil'
★
★ ''
President'' '
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva'
★ '
India'
★
★ ''
Prime Minister'' '
Manmohan Singh'
★ '
Mexico'
★
★ ''
President'' '
Felipe Calderón'
★ '
People's Republic of China'
★
★ ''
President'' '
Hu Jintao'
★ '
South Africa'
★
★ ''
President'' '
Thabo Mbeki'
Location
Kempinski Grand Hotel Heiligendamm
Heiligendamm security fence
is the oldest seaside resort in Germany
[2] on the
Baltic, developed in 1793 as the seaside meeting place of nobility and high society close to
Frederick Francis I, Duke of Mecklenburg. It was selected as the location for the G8 summit due to its isolated location, in anticipation of protests such as those in
Gleneagles and
St Petersburg. The summit site was fenced off by 12
km long barrier, costing an approximate
EUR 12.4 million.
[3]
Heiligendamm, known as "White Town by the Sea", also used to be the summer getaway of the Russian imperial family, who also were related to the Dukes of Mecklenburg. For the occasion of the G8 summit, a former summer residence of the imperial family was demolished to make space for a media centre.
Agenda
At the end of the
32nd G8 summit in
Russia,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel reported that the agenda of the G8 summit in 2007 had not been determined, but "the struggle against poverty across the globe will be a priority."
1
According to the official German Presidency website, the summit's motto was "Growth and Responsibility," focusing on "Investition,
Innovation und Nachhaltigkeit (
Investment, Innovation and
Sustainability)", and "Africa: good governance, sustainable investment, peace and security".
[4] Transparency of the financial markets,
intellectual property and
energy efficiency will also be on the agenda, as well as talks about
climate change.
On
April 13,
2007,
Oil Change International released a reported leaked draft of the economic communique.
[5] The G8 financial ministers began pre-summit meetings on
30 May 2007.
[6]
This was the first G8 summit for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and the final one for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Outcomes
Global warming
In a non-binding
communiqué issued on Thursday June 7, it was announced that the G8 nations would 'aim to at least halve global
CO2 emissions by 2050'. The details enabling this to be achieved would be negotiated by environment ministers within the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in a process that would also include the major
emerging economies. Groups of countries would also be able to reach additional agreements on achieving the goal outside and in parallel with the United Nations process.
[7]
The G8 also announced their desire to use the proceeds from the
auction of emission rights and other financial tools to support
climate protection projects in
developing countries.
The agreement was welcomed by British Prime Minister
Tony Blair as 'a major, major step forward'.
[8] French president
Nicolas Sarkozy would have preferred a binding figure for emissions reduction to have been set.
[9] This was apparently blocked by U.S. President
George W. Bush until the other major
greenhouse gas emitting countries, like India and China, make similar commitments.
[10][11]
Missile defence system
En route to the summit, U.S. president George Bush attempted to assuage Russian concerns over U.S. plans to construct a
missile defence system in
Poland and the
Czech Republic with remarks appearing to invite Russian participation in the project. At the summit, Russian president Vladimir Putin responded by suggesting that the
radar installations for the proposed missile defence system be placed in
Azerbaijan. Bush, in turn, responded by describing Putin's ideas as "an interesting suggestion".
G8+5 Institutionalisation
Chancellor
Angela Merkel announced the establishment of the "
Heiligendamm Process" through which the full institutionalisation of the permanent dialogue between the G8 countries and the 5 greatest emerging economies will be implemented.
This process puts an end to the enlargement debate of the G8 into a hypothetical G9, G11, etc. since Merkel declared "The objective is the cohesion of all these countries into a single group which will be called
G8+5".
Controversed video of Sarkozy
Contrary to French TV, the Belgian TV network diffused a video of French President
Nicolas Sarkozy who appeared to be drunk after a chat with Russian head of state
Vladimir Putin [12].
Protests and activism
On December 29, 2006, anonymous protesters splattered the Kempinski hotel with red and black
paintbombs; the combination of red and black is a common symbol of the
anarchist movement for flags, banners, stickers etc.
Expecting violent protests, shop owners in Rostock boarded up their shops
Watercannon in operation during the June 2nd protests in Rostock.
For the 33rd G8 summit, the local police expected about 100,000 protesters from all parts of Germany and other countries. Preparations were nervous on both sides: 16,000 policemen and over 1,000 soldiers were deployed to protect the interests of the G8 countries as well as heads of state and government, the 12 kilometer-long steel fence has been built around Heiligendamm for the price of 12.4 million
Euro (approx. $16.6 million), while
ATTAC Germany has chartered three trains to get as many discontented citizens as possible from the farther parts of Germany and nearby countries to what is expected to be this year's biggest unified demonstration against G8,
[13] along with numerous buses organized by various groups and political parties. The main demonstration took place
June 2,
2007 in the nearby city of
Rostock and was the starting event for a whole week of protests and blockades. While organizers spoke of up to 80,000 participants, police put the figure at an estimated 25,000.
[14] Anticipation is high by protesters for a strengthening of the
anti-globalization movement. As at previous G8 summits, some protests have turned into violent riots. Towards the end of the June 2 protest, violent clashes between protesters and the police, though essentially limited to a small area at the harbor, were initially reported to have injured nearly 1000 people (433 German police officers, 30–33 of them requiring hospitalisation,
[15] and 520 protesters, 20 requiring hospitalisation
[16]). Later, these figures were disputed,
[17] and the number of police requiring hospitalization was corrected to 2.
[18] According to police estimates, 2,000
autonomists led the riots, setting fire to a total of 3 cars and setting up make-shift barricades; many peaceful protesters fled the scene in panic.
[19] Over 1,000 protesters were detained, and nine of them were tried and condemned during the summit
[ Press statement on G8 Summit in Rostock by the European Democratic Lawyers NGO ]. Hundreds were expelled
[. According to the European Democratic Lawyers NGO:]
"The evidence collected in this manner was absolutely inconsistent and as previously noted everybody detained was released after brief periods of time. In fact it all amounts to an illegal system of mass-indexing and psychological terrorism. The police was aware that the judicial authority would not have confirmed these arrests but proceeded equally with a different objective. The aim was not to arrest presumed offenders but the indexing of a great number of demonstrators, the psychological intimidation of the protesters and the creation of false records to be used in other occasions."
A protest also occurred on 2 June 2007 on the river bank opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, principally a reminder of the G8's previous (and, as the protestors saw them, unfulfilled) promises on debt relief, entitled "G8 – The World Can't Wait" and "Wake Up To Poverty". It was a static protest, with small marches converging on in from Lambeth Park and Methodist Central Hall, on a route starting at the foot of Victoria Tower, along the riverbank of Victoria Tower Gardens, the north side of Lambeth Bridge, and the southern riverbank opposite Parliament as far as (but not including) Westminster Bridge. This principally involved the protesters setting off alarm clocks at 2pm as a "wakeup call" to the G8, and passed without incident. [1]
References
1.
German Chancellor holds news conference on results of G8 summit
2. Heiligendamm - First German Seaside Resort
3. Heiligendamm Prepares for the G8 Summit. Deutsche Welle, 17 February 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2007.
4. Official Agenda, g-8.de
5. , draft of February 2007
6. "Ministers in talks for G8 summit", ''BBC News'', 30 May 2007
7. Breakthrough on climate protection, '' G8 Summit 2007 Heiligendamm'', published 2007-06-07, accessed 2007-06-07
8. PM hails G8 climate change step ''Guardian Unlimited'', published 2007-06-07, accessed 2007-06-07
9. Sarkozy says would have preferred climate change target to be binding, ''Forbes'', published 2007-06-07, accessed 2007-06-07
10. G8 leaders agree "substantial" greenhouse gas cuts, ''Reuters'', published 2007-06-07, accessed 2007-06-07
11. G8 Summit Declaration - US Comments May 14-1
12. The Controversed Video of Sarkozy in the G8, ''Le Monde'', 10 June 2007 (with links to the video)
13. Press release of the demonstration consortium, 24 April 2007
14. - SPIEGEL.de international edition
15. Yahoo.de News: ''Zahl der verletzten Polizisten in Rostock auf 433 gestiegen''
16. Yahoo.de News: ''Organisatoren zählen 520 verletzte Demonstranten nach Krawallen''
17. Focus online: ''Rostock-Krawalle: Zahl der Verletzten zweifelhaft''
18. junge Welt: ''Kampf um die Köpfe''
19. German city rocked by violent riots - SPIEGEL.de international edition
See also
★ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
★ Kyoto Protocol
External links
★ Official website
★ Official website of the related anti G8 demonstration / English version (less extensive)
★ Better World Links on the G8 Summit 2007
★ MODEL G8 YOUTH SUMMIT 2007, G8-Simulation, Berlin - May 2007
★ G8 Research Group's Prospective Agenda
★ Reported "leaked draft" of Economic Communique
★ Reported "leaked draft" of Global Warming Communique (with US Government redlining)
★ G8 TV - daily video stream from the G8
★ 33rd G8 summit: Issues and controversies (BBC)
Security
★ Mecklenburg-Vorpommern police force
In the media
★ May 31, 2007, ''Agence France-Presse'': Bush pushes new climate change plan
★ May 14, 2007, ''BBC'': US seeks G8 climate text changes
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