4Th G7 Summit

The venue for the summit meeting was at the former official residence of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn, the Palais Schaumburg.

4th G7 summit
Schaumburg Palace in Bonn
Host country	West Germany
Dates	16–17 July 1978
Participants	Pierre Trudeau (Canada) Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (France) Helmut Schmidt (West Germany) (host) Giulio Andreotti (Italy) Takeo Fukuda (Japan) James Callaghan (United Kingdom) Jimmy Carter (United States) Roy Jenkins (European Commission) Helmut Schmidt (European Commission)
Follows	3rd G7 summit
Precedes	5th G7 summit

The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada (since 1976), and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 1981). The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the first Group of Six (G6) summit in 1975.

 

The G7 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The 4th G7 summit was the last summit for British Prime Minister James Callaghan and Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda.

Participants

These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:

Core G7 members Host state and leader are shown in bold text.
Member		Represented by	Title
	Canada	Pierre Trudeau	Prime Minister
	France	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	President
	West Germany	Helmut Schmidt	Chancellor
	Italy	Giulio Andreotti	Prime Minister
	Japan	Takeo Fukuda	Prime Minister
	United Kingdom	James Callaghan	Prime Minister
	United States	Jimmy Carter	President
	European Community	Roy Jenkins	Commission President
		Helmut Schmidt	Council President

The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions. This was the first summit where rather than simply issuing joint statements, participants committed themselves to policy decisions.

•  
    Canada
  Pierre Trudeau,
  Prime Minister
•  
    France
  Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, President
•  
    Germany
  Helmut Schmidt,
  Chancellor
•  
    Italy
  Giulio Andreotti,
  Prime Minister
•  
    Japan
  Takeo Fukuda,
  Prime Minister
•  
    United Kingdom
  James Callaghan,
  Prime Minister
•  
    United States
  Jimmy Carter,
  President
•  
    European Union
  Roy Jenkins, Commission President

• G8

• Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2000). Hanging in There: The G7 and G8 Summit in Maturity and Renewal. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-1185-1; OCLC 43186692
• Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-16486-3; ISBN 978-0-203-45085-7; OCLC 39013643

• No official website is created for any G7 summit prior to 1995 -- see the 21st G7 summit.
• University of Toronto: G8 Research Group, G8 Information Centre
  • G7 1978, delegations & documents