The Group of Seven (G7) comprises seven leading industrialised nations: The United States of America, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and Germany. In addition, the European Union sends representatives to all the meetings. 

The summits give the heads of state and government the opportunity to discuss their respective positions in personal meetings. A summit declaration containing the key outcomes is issued at the end of each summit meeting, sometimes along with additional reports and action plans. 

Participants discuss issues that are of global importance, including global economic issues and foreign, security and development policy. They also address those issues that require political action and that generate widespread public interest.

France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany formed the Group of Six in 1975 (Canada joined the following year) to provide a venue for the non-Communist powers to address pressing economic concerns, which included inflation and a recession sparked by the OPEC oil embargo. Cold War politics invariably entered the group’s agenda.

The European Union (EU) has participated fully in the G7 since 1981 as a “nonenumerated” member. It is represented by the presidents of the European Council, which comprises the EU member states’ leaders, and the European Commission, the EU’s executive body. There is no formal criteria for membership, but participants are all developed democracies. The aggregate GDP of G7 member states makes up nearly 50 percent of the global economy, down from nearly 70 percent three decades ago.

Unlike the United Nations or the NATO, the G7 is not a formal institution with a charter and a secretariat. Instead, the presidency, which rotates annually among member states, is responsible for setting the agenda and arranging logistics. Ministers and envoys, known as sherpas, hammer out policy initiatives at meetings that precede the annual summit of national leaders.

The G7 sees itself as a community of values that stands for peace, security and a self-determined life all around the world. Freedom and human rights, democracy and the rule of law, as well as prosperity and sustainable development are key principles of the G7.

The G7 is a forum for dialogue at the highest level attended by the leaders of the world’s most important industrially advanced democracies. Its chief features are the intergovernmental nature of the preparatory process and its informality, which makes it easier for the leaders to discuss the world’s major issues and to rapidly devise and agree on solutions to them. Given that it is not an international organization, it is devoid of any kind of administrative structure or permanent

The G7 is not an international organisation, but what is known as an unofficial forum. That means that it does not adopt resolutions that have direct legal effect. The G7 has neither its own administrative apparatus with a permanent secretariat nor someone who acts as its members’ permanent representative. That is why the rotating presidency is so important.

The G7 do not reach decisions by majority vote. The countries have to reach unanimous agreement on their summit declaration. Even if the decisions are not legally binding, their global impact should not be underestimated.

The country holding the presidency is responsible for organising the annual summit and for drawing up the summit agenda. The governments’ chief negotiators, known as sherpas, do the preparatory and follow-up work. They establish on which issues agreement can be reached and where there is still need for discussion, and they prepare the final declarations containing the key outcomes of the summit.

• 2019     France
• 2020    United States
• 2021    United Kingdom

The G7‘s institutional structure is headed by a “Sherpa,” personal representatives of the Heads of State and of Government of the world’s seven most industrially advanced countries.

The role they play is named after the figures that guide adventurers to Himalayan peaks. Like the mountain climbing porters, the G7 Sherpas do the heavy lifting, overcoming obstacles and safely navigating the chosen paths, thereby defining those positions that will be undersigned at the Summit, on important global issues.

Sherpas are also responsible for the preparatory process preceding the Summit and oversees negotiations regarding the drafting of the Final Communiqué.

Sherpas regularly communicate with each other in connection with their respective leaders’ positions and proposals on international issues, and they are in touch with their leaders directly at all times.

The post of Sherpa is traditionally held by a high-ranking diplomat.

The Sherpas are supported in their role by Foreign Affairs Sous-Sherpas (FASS) and a Political Directors (PD). They are assisted by a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the PD) who is responsible for foreign and security policy issues, and by another representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the FASS) who is generally in charge of such cross-cutting issues as the environment, social and economic aspects, and development.

The Economy and Finance Ministry, on the other hand, handles the economic and financial issues on the Summit’s agenda. Ad hoc working groups can also be set up to address particularly complex, technical issues.

Other guests will be invited to the summit of the heads of state and government to discuss specific topics as part of what is known as the expanded dialogue. There is a long tradition of involving third countries and international organisations in G7 summits. The heads of state and government of various African nations are invited to one of the sessions. In a way of example, the G7 in Schloss Elmau has support the African states in their reform efforts. The aim was and still is to contribute to boosting peace, security, growth and sustainable development in Africa.

Before the G7 summits meeting will be held with representatives from business, the scientific community, trade unions, non-governmental organisations and young people from the G7 countries.

The first meetings between the European Community and the G7 were held in London in 1977. Since the Ottawa Summit in 1981 the European Commission has regularly attended all the working sessions. The European Union shares all the G7’s values and is itself an important economic factor.

The involvement of the emerging economies, of developing countries and of international organizations has kept pace with, and reflects, a gradual evolution in the issues addressed by the Group of Seven. Initial interest in issues relating solely to financial stability and to macro-economic coordination were soon joined by an interest in other crucial themes ranging from development in Africa and climate change to food safety and the resolution of international crises. It was Italy, in Genoa in 2001, that inaugurated the now traditional “African segment” of the Summit, with dialogue sessions between the G7 leaders and the African countries invited by the Presidency.