Italy's Second Month as G8 President
Italy's G8 has begun to move ahead full-throttle. Next week a Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in G7 format is going to kick off a year-long round of meetings, which will be hitting its high point in the Summit on the island of La Maddalena on 8 to 10 July.
In Italy's first month as G8 President, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi began a round of talks with the world's most important leaders to thrash out the priority issues -- the economy, energy issues, sustainable development and climate change, the struggle against terrorism and the stabilisation of crisis areas -- on which Italy's action will be focusing over the coming months.
Delegations from the countries involved in the G8 began to conduct preparatory visits to Sardinia in January, ahead of the July Summit. These inspections allow the representatives of the various governments to gain an overall view of the structures where the summit is to be held, and to discuss their expectations and requirements in connection with organisational issues, logistics and security. The foreign delegations are due to return for a further meeting once work on the construction sites has been completed.
Italy took the opportunity of its first month as G8 President to air the priorities on which it intends to focus over the coming year. Foreign Minister Franco Frattini highlighted the issues on which the debate will be concentrating, in the course of several different engagements.
The summit Italy will be hosting could foster a more structured relationship with emerging countries, focusing in particular on involving them in the process. In that connection, Minister Frattini spoke of "variable geometries", in the sense that the G8's traditional "core" countries could meet with other countries that play a key role in whatever issue is being addressed on any given occasion. The process would be flexible rather than stable, with groups being convened on the basis of the issues under discussion. This would establish a representative group comprising both the industrially advanced and the emerging economies, but the fact that it would be flexible rather than rigidly structured would allow it to address the challenges of globalisation in a versatile and consequently a more effective manner.
Another of the Italian Presidency's goals is to bring the global institutions closer to the people by focusing on real problems and addressing in a concrete manner the new "insecurities" spawned by the globalisation process, with economic and environmental fears topping that list. The financial and economic crisis is unquestionably one of the Italian presidency's priorities because Italy is convinced of the need to set up a new global governance, working on a reform of the international institutions and fostering ever closer cooperation between the G8 and the G20, the forum of economic and finance ministers and central bank governors. With a view to a better coordination, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, duty President of the G20, will be in Rome on 19 February to define with the President of the Council, Silvio Berlusconi, the priorities that will be discussed in the next international meetings.
Italy's list of G8 priorities also includes development in Africa and the emerging countries, the fight against terrorism and climate change, and regional crises -- with Afghanistan and the Middle East at the very top of the list. Minister Frattini announced that he plans to organize a working session devoted to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the course of the foreign ministers' meeting in June.
Italy also intends to back a global farming and food security partnership plan to coordinate all of the organisations and bodies involved in the struggle against hunger and poverty. This announcement was made by Foreign Undersecretary Vincenzo Scotti in Madrid in late January, in the course of his address to the High-Level Meeting on Food Security for All. Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia also dwelt on the issue while presenting the first G8 ministerial meeting devoted to farming.
