Problemy krajów rozwijających się na szczytach G7/G8
The Problems of Developing Countries at G7/G8 Summits

Summary/Abstract: The first summit of the group of industrial nations was held at the Château de Rambouillet near Paris from 15th to 17th November 1975. It was attended by representatives of six countries: France, Japan, the FRG, the USA, Great Britain and Italy. The name G7 was adopted for summits held from 1976 onward, following the incorporation of Canada into the group. Since 1977 representatives of the Commissions of European Communities also attended the meetings, though only as observers. G7 was transformed into G8 in 1998 at the summit in Birmingham after having functioned for a few years as G7+Russia. Economic declarations and communiqués from the summits of the leaders of the member states contained schemes of a strictly economic nature but also social and institutional proposals. Besides guidelines on macroeconomic policy, and trade and monetary systems, issues concerning environment protection, education or health care also appeared on the agenda. Discussions on the problems of developing countries recurred during all the summits, but implementation of relevant postulates, especially those concerning debt cancellation strategy and coordination of official development assistance were only formulated at the turn of the second and third millennium. The article is an attempt to show how G7/8 engaged for the South over a period of more than thirty years of its activity. The problem of effectiveness of particular initiatives is a more complex issue that requires further investigations and separate studies. This publication is based mostly on documents accepted by the leaders of the member states at annual summits.

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