Q&A: Spotlight on the G8 summit

Why is it called the G8? Good question. What started as a club for eight of the world’s richest countries has now grown to such an extent that representatives from about 40 countries and international bodies will descend on L’Aquila – an Italian town still recovering from a major earthquake – for different parts of the three-day G8 summit. What will be achieved? Silvio Berlusconi, the summit host, has been somewhat distracted by various sexual scandals at home and expectations have been lowered accordingly. For some diplomats, the L’Aquila summit is essentially a staging post for two more significant gatherings later in the year: the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, hosted by Barack Obama, and the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. Will the economic crisis dominate the talks? Not exclusively, but the summit will kick off on Wednesday with a discussion on the global economic outlook. Angela Merkel, German chancellor, wants the G8 leaders to discuss an “exit strategy” from the huge fiscal and monetary stimulus put into the economy. Continue ...

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