Il G7 is an informal forum for consultationmade up of a small group of the most economically advanced countries in the Western world, which offers an opportunity for discussion and coordination on a series of issues of priority interest to the international community. Binding decisions are rarely taken in the G7, but it constitutes a useful reference framework for defining shared guidelines on topics of common interest. The G7 agenda is therefore characterized by recurring themes which, traditionally, appear in the conclusions of the respective summits, by themes in some way imposed by the current international context and by specific issues that more closely reflect the priorities of the rotating presidencies.
The priorities of the Italian-led G7
The Italian presidency will coincide with a particularly complex year due to the numerous uncertainties and instability that characterize the international situation, combined with the uncertainty of the electoral deadlines in Europe and the USA. Inevitably, therefore, on the G7 agenda Italian-led will feature the crises that characterize it international current affairs: from the war in Ukraine to the resurgence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from the resumption of tensions in the Middle East to other risk areas that characterize the international scene. All themes that will be declined based on developments over the next few months, but for which the G7 will offer the ideal reference framework for verifying and consolidating a common position of the so-called Western world with respect to these crises.
However, at the center of the G7 agenda there will also be the challenges that the world must face to ensure a sustainable growth e inclusive, financial stability e reduction of wealth gaps. From this perspective, topics such as the coordination of macro-economic policies, finance for development, the future of international trade, food security, health for all, the energy transition and the fight against climate change (including light of the commitments made by the international community at COP28 and in view of COP29), the digital transition and the reduction of digital divide.
Among the topics destined to characterize the agenda of the Italian Presidency, the Government has also already anticipated that special attention will be dedicated to development of relations with Africawith the aim of stimulating more systematic cooperative relations with this part of the world, so important for the availability of raw materials and its spectacular demographic growth.
Another topic of extraordinary relevance and interest for the entire international community, on which the Italian presidency intends to focus, will be that of the development and regulation ofartificial intelligence. From this perspective, the G7 could provide indications aimed above all at identifying a reference framework for shared regulation of artificial intelligence which, without blocking its developments and potential, reduces the risks of improper use, also thanks to international cooperation.
The role of the G7 in the current system of governance global
But the Italian Presidency will also have to keep in mind that, over the years, with the change in the overall balance on the international scene, the countries that are part of the Group of Seven have lost specific weight and therefore relevance. With the consequence that the G7 today has to deal with a representativeness problemin turn a consequence of the emergence of new protagonists who are establishing themselves in the international arena and who ask to play a leading role in the management of governance global. It is no coincidence that since 2008, the G7 has been joined by the G20, a consultation forum with broader participation and therefore potentially much more representative.
However, the G7 undoubtedly remains an important forum for consultation, also because its members are characterized by substantially homogeneous positions on many issues of common interest. But the countries that are part of it will have to make their decisions in the awareness that their specific weight – measured in terms of share of world GDP, share of world population and share of international trade – has been drastically reduced compared to when the Group was created way back in 1975.
In order to continue to play a role in governance global, the G7 will therefore have to increasingly open up to other countries and also contribute, with its decisions, to bridging the gaps that have recently emerged between the West and the rest of the world. From this perspective, it will be important that, also in 2024, the G7 keeps in mind the need to involve a broader spectrum of stakeholders. And confirm the practice of inviting other countries to participate in the consultation process through the formula ofoutreachas a signal of the willingness to involve countries not members of the restricted group in the preparation of the most important decisions, and to listen to and follow up on the demands of the so-called global South.