The Presidency is held by each of the member countries in turn, in the following order: France, United States, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada. The European Union attends the G7 but neither chairs nor hosts Summits.

Italy will hold the Presidency from January 1 to December 31, 2017, a role it has played on five previous occasions in the history of the Group of Seven. It will thus be Italy’s responsibility to: propose and identify the Group’s priorities for action and consequently those areas requiring intervention; host and organize the technical and informal meetings that pave the way to the Summit, attended by the relevant Heads of State and of Government, as well as all the Ministerial Meetings; prepare the drafts and final texts of all supporting documents, including the Final Communiqué. The latter, adopted by the leaders at the end of each Summit, summarizes the main global issues debated during the year. While this communiqué is not a binding document in the strictest sense of the term, it is nonetheless of the utmost importance. It enshrines the pledges that the G7 Heads of State and of Government make regarding the political guidelines that they intend to pursue together.