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1998 (G-8) Birmingham Summit Overview Fact Sheet released by the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, U.S. Department of State, April 30, 1998

The G-8 Birmingham Summit will be held May 15-17, 1998, in Birmingham, England. Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom (which currently also holds the European Union Presidency) will host the meeting, which will be attended by the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States, as well as by the President of the Commission of the European Union.

The leaders will focus on three major themes: employability, drugs and international crime, and the global economy. As with past summits, the leaders are also likely to take up a small number of other current political and economic issues. G-8 foreign and finance ministers will meet May 8-9 in London to discuss a wide range of global and regional issues.

On employability, the leaders will reflect on the results of recent employment conferences in London and Kobe, Japan, and will seek ways to increase the rate of job creation in the face of rapid technological change and increasing globalization. Among the specific issues to be discussed will be how to help young people and members of other disadvantaged or excluded groups find work, how to improve education and training systems in support of life-long learning, how to foster entrepreneurship, and how to encourage active aging.

The leaders will look for new ways to cooperate effectively in the fight against international crime. They will focus on such particularly troublesome areas as high-tech crime, financial crime, organized smuggling of people, and illegal trafficking in firearms. Leaders also will evaluate their efforts to eliminate trade in illegal drugs.

The discussion of the global economy will cover several key issues. Leaders will evaluate the efforts to relieve the Asian financial crisis and the lessons learned from this experience. They also will address the current global framework for trade and investment and what message they should send during this year of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). They will continue discussions begun at the Lyon and Denver summits on development, and they will examine issues related to energy and the environment, especially the challenge of climate change.

Leaders also will use this opportunity to discuss their efforts to promote peace and stability in Kosovo and to reinvigorate the Middle East Peace Process.

[End of Document]

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