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2019 G7 Biarritz Summit Interim Compliance Report
27 August 2019 to 3 June 2020
Meagan Byrd
and the G7 Research Group
21 June 2020
The 2019 G7 Biarritz Summit Second Interim Compliance Report reviews progress made on 21 selected commitments set out at the 2019 Biarritz Summit for the period of 27 August 2019 to 3 June 2020 (see Table A). The preface and summary of the findings are listed below. The summary of the 2019 G7 Biarritz Summit Second Interim Compliance Scores, with rankings by country and by issue, is available below.
Download the full 495-page report here.
The report contains the following sections, which can be downloaded separately:
In a year that has seen many plans disrupted, this report marks two unusual events in the history of the G7. First, as a result of the rapid global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, G7 leaders planned to meet by videoconference on the dates they were to meet in person at Camp David under the U.S. presidency on 10-12 June 2020. Then, on 30 May, just before the virtual summit was to take place, it was postponed indefinitely.
This provided the G7 Research Group the opportunity to produce two interim compliance reports, the first midway between the Biarritz Summit in August 2019 and the Camp David Summit scheduled for June 2020, and this second report, which assesses compliance up to the point when the summit was to take place. A third report will assess final compliance for the full inter-summit period, once the dates of the 2020 summit are known.
Both interim reports, as well as all previous compliance reports, are available at the G7 Information Centre website at www.g7.utoronto.ca/compliance.
The timing of the 2020 reports on compliance with the priority commitments of the Biarritz Summit reflects a turning point in global activity and attention. Released on 15 March 2020, the first report covered G7 members' implementing actions up to 20 December 2019, just before the SARS-CoV-2 virus began to spread internationally. This second report extends the assessment period to 3 June 2020, and thus offers an opportunity to see the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
For its assessment of compliance with the 2019 commitments, G7 Research Group researchers selected 21 priority commitments from the total of 71 commitments made at the Biarritz Summit, hosted by France on 24-26 August 2019. Researchers rely on publicly available information, documentation and media reports of actions taken beginning the day after the summit.
The G7 Research Group has been producing annual compliance reports since 1996. It began publishing interim reports since 2002 to assess progress at the time of the transition from the outgoing G7 presidency to the incoming presidency each 1 January. These reports are offered to the general public and to policy makers, academics, civil society, the media and interested citizens around the world in an effort to make the work of the G7 more transparent and accessible, and to provide scientific data to enable meaningful analysis of the impact of this unique informal international institution.
Based at the University of Toronto and founded in 1987, the G7 Research Group strives to be the leading independent source of information and analysis on the institutions, performance, issues and participants of the G7 summit and system of global governance. It is a global network of scholars, students and professionals. The group oversees the G7 Information Centre, which publishes freely available research on the G7 as well as official documents issued by the G7.
This report is produced entirely on a voluntary basis. It receives no direct financial support from any source. It comes from a process entirely insulated from the other major activities of the G7 Research Group, such as its pre-summit conferences sponsored by various institutions or the "background books" produced GT Media.
To ensure the accuracy, comprehensiveness and integrity of these reports, comments and suggestions are always welcome. Indeed, this is a living document, and the scores can be recalibrated if new material becomes available. All feedback remains anonymous and is never attributed. Responsibility for this report's contents lies exclusively with the report's authors and the analysts of the G7 Research Group.
The work of the G7 Research Group would not be possible without the steadfast dedication of many people around the world. This report is the product of a team of energetic and hard-working analysts led by Meagan Byrd, chair of summit studies, and her team of compliance directors, lead analysts and analysts. It would also not be possible without the efforts of Brittaney Warren, director of compliance, Dr. Ella Kokotsis, director of accountability, and Madeline Koch, executive director. We are also indebted to the many people who provide feedback on our drafts, whose comments are always carefully considered in the published report.
The University of Toronto G7 Research Group's Second Interim Compliance Report on the 2019 Biarritz Summit assesses the compliance of the G7 members with 21 priority commitments selected from the total of 71 made at their summit in France on 24-26 August, based on members' implementing actions taken between 27 August 2019 and 3 June 2020 (see Table A). This selection of commitments reflects the breadth and focus of the summit agenda, including the host's priorities and the built-in issues. This analysis, which builds on the first interim compliance report published on 15 March 2020, was intended to present the final findings for the period leading up to the originally scheduled G7 summit, to be hosted by the United States at Camp David on 10-12 June 2020. Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, the U.S. host shifted to planning for a summit held by videoconference. On 20 May, just weeks before the summit, President Donald Trump announced his intention to return to an in-person summit, and then announced it would take place later in the year. The G7 Research Group is continuing to monitor G7 members' actions to fulfill their Biarritz commitments, and a final report will be issued on the eve of the 2020 summit, when that date because known.
The first interim compliance report is available for comparison at here.
Compliance is measured on a three-point scale. A score of +1 indicates full compliance with a commitment, a score of 0 indicates partial compliance, and a score of −1 indicates non-compliance as in a failure to comply or action taken that is directly opposite to the commitment. Table B contains the second interim compliance scores.
For the period of 27 August 2019 to 3 June 2020, average compliance for the 21 commitments assessed is +0.50 (75%). This is a significant increase from the first interim score of +0.24 (62%), which measured compliance midway between the previous and upcoming summits. It is similar to the interim scores of +0.51 (75%) for compliance with the 2018 and 2016 summits' commitments and higher than the interim score of +0.44 (72%) with the 2017 summit. It is lower, however, than the final scores for compliance of +0.66 (83%) with the 2018 summit and +0.59 (80%) with the 2017 summit, and the same as the score for compliance with the 2016 summit commitments, all of which covered essentially the same period from the day after the summit until just before the next one. Table C contains the scores from previous years.
The United Kingdom ranked first with an average score of +0.76 (88%), followed by Germany at +0.71 (86%) and the European Union at +0.67 (83%). This is a different configuration from the first interim Biarritz compliance report, with the European Union at +0.52 (76%) Germany at +0.48 (74%) and the United Kingdom (+0.43) at 71%. France, which hosted the 2019 summit, now ranks fourth at +0.33 (67%), up from fifth although with the same score as in March. Italy had the lowest score at +0.10 (55%), up from its previous interim score of −0.29 (36%). Table C contains the scores by member.
Three commitments had compliance of +1.00 (100%): one on digital democracy, one on artificial intelligence and one on universal health coverage. They were followed by two commitments at +0.88 (94%): one on gender equality and one on the Sustainable Development Goals. The lowest compliance came on the commitment on primary health care and the commitment on G5 Sahel police, both with the score of −0.13 (44%). Table D contains the scores by commitment.
These final results from the Biarritz Summit show a difference of 0.67 between the highest and lowest compliance scores of members, smaller than the gap of 0.81 in March.
The information contained within this report provides G7 members and other stakeholders with an indication of the G7 members' compliance with 21 commitments for the period beginning immediately after the Biarritz Summit in August 2019 until 3 June 2020. The draft of this report that was distributed to stakeholders for feedback covered actions taken up to 13 April 2020, but research continued up to just before the original summit dates in June 2020. A final report will be published on the eve of the 2020 summit. As with previous compliance reports, this report has been produced as an invitation for others to provide additional or more complete information on G7 members' compliance. Comments are always welcomed and would be considered as part of an analytical reassessment. Please send your feedback to g7@utoronto.ca.
| Commitment | |
| 1 | "Enabling the necessary digital infrastructure in order to reduce the digital gap and inequality, including in isolated countries and regions that are excluded or underserved." (2019-37) |
| 2 | "We are determined to work collaboratively to reinforce our democracies against illicit and malign behavior and foreign hostile interference by state and non-state actors." (2019-67) |
| 3 | "We will continue to explore ways to advance our work on AI [artificial intelligence] to understand and share on a regular basis, multidisciplinary research results on artificial intelligence issues and best practices, as well as bringing together international artificial intelligence initiatives." (2019-71) |
| 4 | "Aside from our domestic commitments, we stand ready to support interested countries through our different expertise and development mechanisms to adopt, implement and monitor laws that remedy this and advance gender equality." (2019-54) |
| 5 | "We support the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative including through the Women Entrepreneurs-Finance Initiative (We-Fi)." (2019-30) |
| 6 | "We will continue to support women's entrepreneuship in Africa, including by supporting the removal of legal, social and regulatory barriers that discriminate against women's full and free economic participation and empowerment." (2019-35) |
| 7 | "[We]…endeavor to work together with developing countries to promote inclusion, equity and access of girls and women to quality education, including access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)." (2019-60) |
| 8 | "[We share an objective] to foster peace and stability in the region." (2019-7) |
| 9 | "We [support the efforts of countries in the region, notably those in the G5, in coming together to address these security and development challenges and] remain committed to working with them to improve and better coordinate efforts to enhance their defence and internal security capabilities, including through support for structureal reforms of their security appatus." (2019-12) |
| 10 | "As the G7, we will work with the United Nations and INTERPOL in order to provide appropriate support to G5 countries in building more efficient G5 Sahel police and defence capabilities." (2019-16) |
| 11 | "We support facilitating increased access of G5 countries to all available public and private finance." (2019-18) |
| 12 | "We are determined to work together to address global challenges, in line with Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda and taking into account the African Union Agenda 2063." (2019-29) |
| 13 | "We reiterate our willingness to continue to develop entrepreneuship and private sector youth employment in Africa through multilateral iniatives, such as the G20 Compact with Africa and other bilateral initatives supported by individual G7 members." (2019-28) |
| 14 | "[Therefore, the G7 wishes to overhaul the WTO [World Trade Organization] to improve effectiveness with regard to eliminate unfair trade practices." (2019-4) |
| 15 | "The G7 commits to reaching in 2020 an agreement to simplify regulatory barriers and modernize international taxation within the framework of the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]." (2019-5) |
| 16 | "We commit to pursuing our efforts to strengthen quality primary health care in Sahel countries, with a specific focus on gender equality and women's empowerment." (2019-23) |
| 17 | "We recall our commitment to moving towards achieving universal health coverage according to national contexts and priorities, building resilient and sustainable health systems, in order to be able to reach the most affected communities." (2019-25) |
| 18 | "We will continue to support efforts to promptly respond to ongoing cases of victims' specific medical, psychological and social needs while making those responsible accountable." (2019-56) |
| 19 | "Leaders endorsed the G7 Metz Charter on Biodiversity and committed to take swift action on biodiversity, either individually or jointly, in the run up to COP15 [15th Conference of the Parties] of the Convention on Biological Diversity." (2019-61) |
| 20 | "We support enhancing public procurement transparency and standards, in order to improve the business and investment climate, transparency, accountability and debt sustainability through the constructive involvement of governments, businesses and civil society organization, thus contributing to the fight against corruption." (2019-33) |
| 21 | "[We will encourage partner countries' governments and other donors to join a collective effort in strengthening education systems, thus increasing our coordination and our political and financial support to education, including basic education." (2019-22) |
* For the full list of commitments, please contact the G7 Research Group at g7@utoronto.ca.
| Canada | France | Germany | Italy | Japan | United Kingdom | United States | European Union | Average | |||
| 1 | Digital economy: Digital infrastructure | +1 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | −1 | +1 | +0.38 | 69% |
| 2 | Digital economy: Digital democracy | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1.00 | 100% |
| 3 | Digital economy: Artificial inteligence | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1.00 | 100% |
| 4 | Gender: Gender equality | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +0.88 | 94% |
| 5 | Gender: Affirmative finance action for women in Africa | 0 | 0 | +1 | −1 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 0 | +0.13 | 56% |
| 6 | Gender: Women's entrepreneurship in Africa | +1 | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +1 | 0 | 0 | +0.63 | 81% |
| 7 | Gender: STEM education | +1 | +1 | +1 | −1 | −1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +0.13 | 56% |
| 8 | Regional security: Iran | 0 | +1 | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +0.75 | 88% |
| 9 | Regional security: G5 Sahel security and development | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +0.75 | 88% |
| 10 | Regional security: G5 Sahel police | −1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −0.13 | 44% |
| 11 | Development: G5 Sahel | 0 | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +1 | 0 | 0 | +0.50 | 75% |
| 12 | Development: Sustainable Development Goals | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +0.88 | 94% |
| 13 | Development: Entrepreneurship in Africa | +1 | +1 | +1 | −1 | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +0.63 | 81% |
| 14 | Trade: World Trade Organization reform | 0 | +1 | +1 | −1 | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +0.50 | 75% |
| 15 | Trade: Tax policy | +1 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | −1 | 0 | +0.25 | 63% |
| 16 | Health: Primary health care | +1 | −1 | 0 | −1 | −1 | 0 | +1 | 0 | −0.13 | 44% |
| 17 | Health: Universal health coverage | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1.00 | 100% |
| 18 | Health: Mental health | −1 | +1 | +1 | −1 | −1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 50% |
| 19 | Environment: Biodiversity | +1 | +1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +0.63 | 81% |
| 20 | Crime and corruption: Procurement | −1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | 0 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +0.63 | 81% |
| 21 | Education: G5 Sahel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 | +0.13 | 56% |
| 2019 second interim compliance average | +0.48 | +0.67 | +0.76 | +0.10 | +0.38 | +0.76 | +0.19 | +0.67 | +0.50 | 75% | |
| 74% | 83% | 88% | 55% | 69% | 88% | 60% | 83% | ||||
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |||||||||||||
| 2nd interim | 1st interim | final | interim | final | interim | final | interim | |||||||||
| United Kingdom | +0.76 | 88% | +0.43 | 72% | +0.85 | 93% | +0.70 | 85% | +0.84 | 92% | +0.56 | 78% | +0.53 | 77% | +0.64 | 82% |
| Germany | +0.67 | 83% | +0.48 | 74% | +0.50 | 75% | +0.40 | 70% | +0.63 | 82% | +0.44 | 72% | +0.67 | 84% | +0.55 | 78% |
| European Union | +0.67 | 83% | +0.52 | 76% | +0.90 | 95% | +0.85 | 93% | +0.95 | 98% | +0.94 | 97% | +0.67 | 84% | +0.91 | 96% |
| France | +0.76 | 88% | +0.33 | 67% | +0.65 | 83% | +0.45 | 73% | +0.68 | 84% | +0.50 | 75% | +0.26 | 63% | +0.27 | 64% |
| Canada | +0.48 | 74% | +0.05 | 53% | +0.80 | 90% | +0.70 | 85% | +0.68 | 84% | +0.44 | 72% | +0.58 | 79% | +0.55 | 78% |
| Japan | +0.38 | 69% | +0.38 | 69% | +0.68 | 84% | +0.58 | 79% | +0.47 | 74% | +0.25 | 63% | +0.28 | 64% | +0.18 | 59% |
| United States | +0.19 | 60% | +0.05 | 53% | +0.47 | 74% | +0.24 | 62% | +0.17 | 59% | +0.13 | 57% | +0.63 | 82% | +0.82 | 91% |
| Italy | +0.10 | 55% | −0.29 | 396% | +0.50 | 75% | +0.15 | 58% | +0.37 | 69% | +0.31 | 66% | +0.21 | 61% | +0.18 | 59% |
| Average | +0.50 | 75% | +0.24 | 62% | +0.66 | 83% | +0.51 | 76% | +0.59 | 80% | +0.44 | 72% | +0.49 | 75% | +0.51 | 76% |
| Spread | 0.66 | 0.81 | 0.45 | 0.70 | 0.78 | 0.81 | 0.46 | 0.73 | ||||||||
| 1 | Digital economy: Artificial intelligence | +1.00 | 100% |
| Digital economy: Digital democracy | |||
| Health: Universal health coverage | |||
| 4 | Development: Sustainable Development Goals | +0.88 | 94% |
| Gender: Gender equality | |||
| 6 | Regional security: G5 Sahel security and development | +0.75 | 88% |
| Regional security: Iran | |||
| 8 | Crime and corruption: Procurement | +0.63 | 81% |
| Development: Entrepreneurship in Africa | |||
| Environment: Biodiversity | |||
| 11 | Gender: Women's entrepreneurship in Africa | ||
| 12 | Development: G7 Sahel | +0.50 | 75% |
| Trade: World Trade Organization reform | |||
| 14 | Digital economy: Digital infrastructure | +0.38 | 69% |
| 15 | Trade: Tax policy | +0.25 | 63% |
| 16 | Education: G5 Sahel | +0.13 | 56% |
| Gender: Affirmative finance action for women in Africa | |||
| Gender: STEM education | |||
| 19 | Health: Mental health | 0 | 50% |
| 20 | Regional security: G7 Sahel Police | −0.13 | 44% |
| Health: Primary health care |
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