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The Group of Eight and the European Union: The Evolving Partnership

Endnotes

This study is dedicated to Michael Hodges, who until his sudden death in June 1998, was senior lecturer in the department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and a recognized expert in the G8. His high academic standards, encouragement of young scholars and refreshingly unconventional approach have been an inspiration to many.

1. The official members of the G8 are: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US, and, since 1998, Russia. The European Union, represented by the European Commission and the Council Presidency, began participating in the Western Economic Summits in 1977.

2. When referring to pre-1998 summits, the term G7 or S7 will be used.

3. This study is based primarily on primary and secondary research including interviews, comments from G8 experts, a systematic review of G7/G8 communiqués, statements and declarations as well as an analysis of the literature which has been a vital source of information and insight.

4. Bayne, Nicholas and Robert Putnum, "Introduction: The G7 Comes of Age," in Sylvia Ostry and Gilbert Winham, eds., The Halifax Summit: Issues on the Table, (Halifax: Dalhousie University, Centre for Policy Studies, 1995), pp. 2

5.Putnum, Robert D. "Summit Sense," Foreign Policy. 55 (Summer 1984) pp. 75.

6. As the EU has acquired increasing responsibilities, its name has changed to reflect this transformation. From 1958-1967 there were officially three institutions making up the European Communities: 1) the European Economic Cummunity (EC), 2) the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and 3) the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). After the 1967 Merger Treaty, these were combined into the European Community (EC). Since the entry into force of the Treaty of European Union, also known as the Maastricht Treaty, on 1 November 1993, the various institutions have become collectively known as the European Union.

7. As pointed out by Sir Nicholas Bayne, the fact that the forum has officially been renamed the G8 makes Russian membership irreversible.

8.Rambouillet Declaration, Pt. 1. November 1975.

9. While Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings have been taking place regularly since 1944, they meet every two years.

10. I thank Sir Nicholas Bayne for this clarification.

11. The G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings are an expansion of the G5 group established in 1967 to include Canada and Italy. The members of the G5 are: France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US. These two groups are derived from, and still participants in the G10 which was established in 1962. This group consists of the G7 plus Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and, since 1984, Switzerland thus giving the Group eleven members.

12. The membership of the G24 consists of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK, and the US.

13. While it was announced that the assistance totalled $43 billion, this figure included $15 billion from the Paris Club that had previously been announced. A more exact figure, therefore, is $28 billion.

14. "The First Green Summit," The Economist 15 July 1989, pp.11.

15. As witnessed at the Birmingham Summit, the G8-sponsored reform of the international institutions is taking place in a dynamic system. The continuing work in this areas implies that rather than having a clear endpoint, international institutional reform is likely to be an ongoing process with continued G8 support ever more necessary. The practical content of this support, however, needs to be clarified in future G8 activities in this area. Nicholas Bayne notes "all the very detailed work on supervision has yet to resolve how this work will be organized - who will do what." (Nicholas Bayne "First Impressions of the Birmingham Summit," 17-19 May 1998, pp. 5.

16. Confidential interview with an official from the US Mission to the EU in Brussels on 16 December 1996.

17. George M. von Furstenberg and Joseph P. Daniels. Economic Summit Declarations 1975-1989: Examining the Written Record of International Cooperation. No. 72 of Princeton Studies of International Finance. Princeton: International Finance Section, Department of Economics, Princeton University, February 1992. Pp. 3.

18. "Glitter in London," The Economist. 20 July 1991. Pp. 18.

19. Watts, David. Next Steps for Summitry. Report of the Twentieth Century Fund International Conference on Economic Summitry. Background Paper. (New York: Priority Press, 1984). pp. 4.

20. Robert D. Putnum and Nicholas Bayne. Hanging Together: The Seven-Power Summits. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987). pp. 106.

21. Horvitz, Paul. "Few Gans of the G7 Process Among Leaders in Tokyo," International Herald Tribune. 9 July 1993.

22. Watts, David. "How the Summits Work," Report of the Twentieth Century Fund International Conference on Economic Summitry. Background Paper. (New York: Priority Press, 1984). pp. 47.

23. At Birmingham it was suggested that there should be two summits in the year 2000 with both Japan and Russia hosting summits.

24. Putnum and Bayne. Hanging Together: The Seven-Power Summits. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987). pp. 44.

25. Putnum and Bayne. Hanging Together: The Seven-Power Summits. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987). pp. 52.

26. We thank Sir Nicholas Bayne for this clarification.

27. Putnum and Bayne. Hanging Together: The Seven-Power Summits. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987). pp. 52.

28. For example, in preparing for the 1998 Birmingham G8 Summit there were several pre-summit meetings including G7/G8 meetings on: international crime in December 1997, employment in February 1998, energy in March, environment in April and both separate and joint meetings of finance and foreign ministers in May.

29. Putnum and Bayne. Hanging Together: The Seven-Power Summits. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987). pp. 78.

30. Members of the Quad are the EU, Japan, Canada, and the US. Their meetings focus on trade issues.

31. However, at the 1998 pre-summit meeting of finance ministers, there was a brief session of the Finance G8. We thank an anonymous reviewer for this clarification.

32. The Plaza Agreement of September 1985 and the Louvre Agreement of February 1987 were significant steps in the G7 commitment of mutual surveillance and coordination of exchange rate movements. These agreements, respectively reducing and then stabilizing the value of the US dollar, focused on increasing the stability of exchange rates.

33. Conclusions of G7 Finance Ministers: 8 May 1998. Pt. 6.

34. Statement by the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors: 14 September 1998. Pt. 6.

35. As quoted in the Financial Times, 22 September 1998. pp. 4.

36. Bayne, Nicholas. "The Course of Summitry," in The World Today, Vol. 48, No. 2, February 1992. pp. 27.

37. Bayne, Nicholas and Robert Putnum, "Introduction: The G7 Comes of Age," in Sylvia Ostry and Gilbert Winham, eds., The Halifax Summit: Issues on the Table, (Halifax: Dalhousie University, Centre for Policy Studies, 1995), pp. 10.

38. I credit Sir Nicholas Bayne for pointing this fact out.

39. Meeting together for the first time at Lyon, the G7 Heads of State and Government as well as the heads of the WTO, the IMF, WB, and UN established the New Partnership for Development.

40. Russia has participated in political discussions since 1994.

41. Confidential interview with a Commission official on the EC's political working group in Brussels in December 1996.

42. We thank an anonymous reviewer for clarifying this point.

43. The presidency of the Council of Ministers is based on a revolving six-month schedule. The president-in-office is the foreign minister of the respective member states.

44. Canada became an official member of the Summit process in 1976 at the invitation of the US. Thus, the Puerto Rico Summit was the first meeting of the G7.

45. The Council of Ministers consists of national ministers of the EU members states. There are over 20 different councils each representing different sectors and consisting of the respective national ministers. The General Affairs Council, which is responsible for G8 issues, is made up of the foreign ministers.

47. Official Journal: C 93 184 1977 as quoted in Susan Hainsworth, Coming of Age: The European Community and the Economic Summit, Country Study No. 7, Centre for International Studies. University of Toronto, Toronto. 1990. March 1998, Section III.

48. We thank Sir Nicholas Bayne for this clarification.

49. The Summit concluded in a US/EC compromise in which involvement ion the planning assistance programs to the USSR would be shared by the European Commission, the IMF as well as other international organizations.

50. Bonvicini, Gianni and Wolfgang Wessels. "The European Community and the Seven," in Merlini, Cesare, ed., Economic Summits and Western Decision-Making. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. pp. 182.

51. Bonvicini, Gianni and Wolfgang Wessels. "The European Community and the Seven," in Merlini, Cesare, ed., Economic Summits and Western Decision-Making. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. pp. 185-186.

52. The members of the EU currently participating in the EMU are: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.

53. Treaty on European Union. Title VI Economic and Monetary Policy. Article 109.4.

54. Treaty on European Union. Title VI Economic and Monetary Policy. Article 109.3.

55. Henning, Randall C. Cooperating with Europe's Monetary Union. policy analyses in International Economics. 49 May 1997. pp. 62.

56. Financial Times. 28 September 1998. pp. 3.

57. Special Survey on EMU. The Economist. 11 April 1998.

58. Henning, Randall C. Cooperating with Europe's Monetary Union. pp. 49. This work offers an excellent discussion of the external issues involved in EMU. 59. Confidential interview with a diplomatic official in Brussels in December 1996. 60. As noted by Sir Nicholas Bayne in comments of 24 June 1998.

61. Bayne, Nicholas. "The Course of Summitry," pp. 30.

62. Naples Summit Communiqué. Pt. 4. 1. July 1994.

63. Confidential interview with an official from the Japanese Mission to the EU in Brussels 18 December 1996.

64. G7 Information Society Conference. "Theme Paper," 25-26 February 1995. Brussels, Belgium. pp. 4.

65. G7 Information Society Conference. "Theme Paper," 25-26 February 1995. Brussels, Belgium. pp. 4.

66. European Parliament. "Resolution on the G7 Conference on the Information Society," February 1995. Pt. 8.

67. Donnely, Alan, MEP and Glenys Kinnock, MEP. "European Socialists and the G-7 Conference in Johannesburg: Information Society and Development - ISAD," 9 May 1996. Brussels, Belgium. pp. 2.

68. Chairman's Statement. 1996 Lyon Summit. Pt. 6. June 1996.

69. Confidential interview with an official from the Japanese Mission to the EU in Brussels 18 December 1996.

70. "G8 Global Information Society Pilot Projects Interim Report," 7 May 1998. pp. 2.

71. "G8 Global Information Society Pilot Projects Interim Report," 7 May 1998. pp. 2.

72. Ostry, Sylvia. "Canada, Europe and the European Community," Unpublished paper presented at the All-European Canadian Studies Conference. The Hague, Netherlands. 24-27 October 1990. Conclusion.

73. We thank our colleague, Julius Sen, for his assistance in developing these questions.

74. For a theoretical discussion of this phenomenon, see Putnum, Robert D. "Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: the logic of two-level games," International Organization. No. 42, Summer 1988.

75. 1996 Lyon Summit Communiqué. Pts. 4and 5. 29 June 1996.

76. Confidential interview with an official from the US Mission to the EU in Brussels 16 December 1996.

77. Hodges, Michael. "More Efficiency, Less Dignity: British Perspectives on the Future Role and Working of the G7," in The International Spectator. Vol. 29, No. 2 April/June 1994. Special Issue. pp. 141-159.

78. Since 1985, the G7/G8 have been issuing proposals for the reform of international institutions in order to make them more effective. As witnessed since the onset of the Asian crisis, the G8 have been calling on the IMF and World Bank to play a larger role in supporting faltering economies. Regarding the delegation of responsibility to specialist ministers, he G8 now supports the following regular ministerial meetings: Finance, Foreign Affairs, Employment, Environment, Terrorism and Trade.

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