In coming meetings of the G8 (the world's club of rich industrial countries plus Russia), four members--Germany, France, Italy, and the UK--will participate both individually and as members of the European Union, whose President also attends to represent the EU as a whole. But shouldn't the EU have only a single representative? Regardless of whether these meetings are productive, unitary EU participation would be of supreme symbolic value: it would affirm a common European stance in international relations and international economic policy.
In coming meetings of the G8 (the world's club of rich industrial countries plus Russia), four members--Germany, France, Italy, and the UK--will participate both individually and as members of the European Union, whose President also attends to represent the EU as a whole. But shouldn't the EU have only a single representative? Regardless of whether these meetings are productive, unitary EU participation would be of supreme symbolic value: it would affirm a common European stance in international relations and international economic policy.