Q1/2019 - G7
Paris, January 2019
On 1 January 2019, France took over the G7 presidency. The key theme under French presidency is “Fighting inequality”. The five focal issues assigned to it include digital economy and artificial intelligence.[1]
The French government announced to involve non-state players to an unprecedented extent in the preparation of documents for the individual ministerial meetings and summits. To this end, France intends to change the general format of the G7 process. Inspired by the G20 process, the French G7 presidency plans to hold additional G7 meetings for non-governmental stakeholder groups. In total, seven such meetings are on the agenda: young people (Youth 7), women (Women 7), non-governmental organisations (C7), unions (Labour 7), employers (Business 7), think tanks (Think Tanks 7) and academies of science (Science 7).
At the governmental level, eight ministerial meetings are scheduled. A separate meeting of the so-called digital ministers (as it was held under Italian G7 presidency in Turin in 2017) is not planned. The French government considers the Internet topics a cross-sectional theme that concerns all and that has to be on the agenda of all ministerial conferences. The meeting of the foreign and interior ministers will take place on 5 and 6 April 2019 and that of the ministers for development and education on 4 and 5 July. The G7 Summit is scheduled for 24 to 26 August 2019 in Biarritz.