G8 Youth Summit took plaсe in Milan, 15-21 March 2009 . The G8 Youth Communiqué was signed
G8 Youth Summit took plaсe in Milan, 15–21 March 2009. The G8 Youth Communiqué was signed. Delegations of youth leaders of G8 and observer countries met on the Summit. Each delegation consisted of 12 members: Head of State, Sherpa, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Economic Development, Minister of Finance, Minister of Defense, Minister of Development, Minister of Environment, 3 experts, and a group of young business leaders. On Monday, March 15 Prime Minister of Italy; Diego Sencore greeted the delegations arriving to Italy. Upon arrival, the delegation of Russia took one of the hotel conference rooms to continue the joint preparation for the negotiations. At 18 00 Italian time camera crew of the «Russia» Channel with a correspondent, Asya Emelianova appeared in the hall. As a result of the shooting on Tuesday in the «News» program on channels «Russia» and «Vesti» there were stories about the participation of Russian Delegation in the G8 Youth Summit in Milan. From Monday to Thursday in 12 conference rooms of the Bocconi University (leading university in the field of business education in Italy) were held parallel sessions of 12 industry groups each of which had its purpose to prepare on of the parts of the Communiqué. The agenda of each group had the issues discussed at the adult G8 Summit. On Thursday, at 18.00 all the Groups of Ministers had to hand in their communique to the Group of Heads of State (and Sherpa) so that they could accept the entire text of the Communiqué. The organizers of the Summit supposed that the approval of the Communique be over by 23.00 but the Group of Heads of State decided not to waste time on sleeping and to work on improving and developing the ideas unfolded in the Communique till 10:00 in the Morning, Friday and then go to the closing ceremony and signing of the G8 Youth Communique. The Group of Heads of States and Sherpas spent 16 hours, from 18:00 Thursday to 10:00 Friday in continuous discussing and finalizing the text of the Communique. 16 hours of full responsibility for every word. Each of those who presented had to agree on the final wording of each paragraph, every sentence, and every word. And the guys have coped with this very difficult task!
Communiqué was sent to the Assistant of the President of the Russian Federation, the representative of the President of the Russian Federation for a group of leading industrialized nations and relations with the leaders of the G8 countries, A. Dvorkovich, as well as to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
In real life, the ministerial meeting of the G8 are held throughout the year, heads of state — in the summer and dozens of ministries and departments in all countries are working on the texts of joint communiques. The heads of state sign already prepared and approved communique.
At the Youth Summit delegations are put in more stringent conditions, and they cope with the task largely due to coordinated work of the organizing committee of eight countries, G8 Youth Network which is working on the preparation and conducting of public project G8 Youth Summit every day of the year.
Youth G8 consists of eight non-profit organizations from eight countries specially created for the preparation and holding of public project G8 Youth Summit. In Russia, this organization is the International Youth Diplomacy League, which invented and developed the concept of the Youth Summit project in 2005 and first held it in 2006, in the year of Russia’s presidency in the G8.
Each public organization in its country begins the recruitment and training process of national delegation the year before Youth Summit. From May to September, we inform the leading universities in the world economy, politics, law, through the national association of business — companies and public organizations, political parties, federal and regional state authorities about the competition for the national delegation. From September to December two stages of competition, written and oral will be.
Then from January to March there will be the process of analytic preparation of each delegation, a number of consultations in the various ministries and research centers is held. Before the Italian Summit The International Youth Diplomacy League had prepared a consultation for the Russian Delegation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the Higher School of Economics (one of three centers in the world to study the G8), the Russian Gas Society.
On behalf of the organizers and the whole Russian delegation we would like to express gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, and personally Vasily Pospelov, (Deputy Head of the Department of Foreign Policy Planning), and Alexander Pankin (Deputy Head of Department of International Organizations) for holding a very important and meaningful consultation within the walls of the ministry for the Russian delegation.
We also express our gratitude to the Higher School of Economics, Center to study the G8 _and personally Marina (Vice-Rector, Head of Centre) for preparation of the Russian delegation to participate in the G8 Youth summit in Milan, the Russian public organization «Russian Gas Society» and personally Valery Yazev (chairman) and Mikhail Yermolovich (Advisor to the Chairman) for organization of consultations on energy security, Russia’s energy diplomacy, the future of world energy. We would also like to thank our loyal partners, «Russian Political Science Association» for significant contribution to the scientific and analytical preparation of Russian delegates on issues of international relations, world politics, global economy, and personally Igor Okunev (board member RPMA).
We would like to thank Russian organization «Business Russia» for the long-term cooperation on the project and personally, Boris Titov (Chairman), Elgiz Kachaev (coordinator for the North-West Federal District), the Russian Union of Rectors, and personally, Vladimir Vasiliev (Vice-President).
In 2009, the global financial crisis has had an impact on the public project, G8 Youth Summit. We are extremely grateful to the Far Eastern State University, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Moscow State University, ENGECON, the Government of Novosibirsk, the Administration of the Komi Republic for the financial support of delegates from their regions, which became part of the Russian delegation.
The graduates of the past years Summits know working in federal and regional government bodies, various companies, public organizations, universities, research centers take an active part in annual preparation and holding of public project the G8 Youth Summit. The alumnis provide strong support at the stages of selection, preparation of a new delegation, in terms of strategic development of the project. Every year there are meetings of graduates. There is a format for national and international graduates meetings, alumni meetings, in which graduates from 13 countries can take part.
Kseniia Khoruzhnikova, Chair of the International Youth Diplomacy League answering the question from the BBC television about what is the most interesting part of the project, said: «The participants and alumnis of our project is the biggest value. And their value is increasing every year. Public authorities from eight countries, business, media, and, of course, the organizers and the participants themselves are well aware of it. We invest in those who have already become decision-makers across their companies, regions, countries, and tomorrow will decide on the scale of our planet».
The next G8 Youth Summit will be held in 2010 in Canada. We invite you to take part in the competition for entry into the Russian delegation. Information on the contest will be posted on our website.