G7
The Group of Seven or G7 is a coalition of the major industrial democracies: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States (the original G6 which met the first time in 1975), and Canada which joined in 1976, superseded in 1998 by the G8. Under the auspices of G7 a special programme for the implementation of the Information Society was established in 1994. The primary purpose of the G7 now is as an annual meeting of the financial ministers of those countries, as well as officials from the European Community, held preceding the weekend of the IMF/World Bank annual fall meetings. This meeting is now also known as the G8 Finance Ministers Meeting.
The G7 met as a summit of the heads of state until 1998, when it became, with the addition of Russia, the G8.
Annual summits of the heads of state of the G6 began in 1975; the next year Canada joined to form the G7. Beginning in 1991 Russia (then the USSR) met with the G7 post-summit, a group which became the P8 starting with the 1994 Naples Summit. The 1998 Birmingham Summit saw the formation of the G8 with Russia's full participation, and the G7 began its function as a meeting for the financial ministers.
The G7 meetings, like the G8 summits, are targets of anti-globalization movement protests.
G7 Head of State summits rotate anually through member countries, with that nation's leader serving as an informal chairman of the group.
For more on G7, see Group of Eight.
