President Barroso will represent the Commission at the G8 summit for the fifth time, which this year takes place under Italian chairmanship in L'Aquila (Italy). G8 leaders will notably address the global economy, including trade, climate change and energy, Africa/development and food security.

Along with the leaders of Sweden (as holder of the EU Council presidency), the four other European Union G8 members (France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom) as well as the United States, Russia, Canada, and Japan, President Barroso will push for a coordinated international response to common challenges related to the economic and financial crisis, trade, climate change and energy, development/Africa and food security.

On climate change, significant discussions are expected both in G8 formation, and in the meeting of the Major Economies Forum. President Barroso will stress the importance of the science and remaining within a 2C temperature rise, and call for reaffirmation of a goal of at least a 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050. In addition, all developed countries should be ready to reduce emissions by at least 80% in the same period and make a solid start through robust mid-term reductions, with comparable efforts by all developed countries. This in turn should promote the readiness of major emerging economies to take actions to collectively reduce their emissions below business as usual. He will also stress the economic opportunities in moving towards a low-carbon economy.

On the world economy, President Barroso will call on the G8 to send a strong signal that protectionist pressures in trade and investment relations must be resisted in times of economic crisis. Given the strong social impact of the current crisis, he will call on all governments to "put people first" and to devise social and employment policies that help protecting people and jobs with a view to promoting economic recovery and the establishment of a new, equitable global framework. He will also press for the meeting in L'Aquila to provide new momentum towards the conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda as soon as possible.

President Barroso will finally highlight the continued importance of global food security, where the Commission has since the last G8 meeting agreed to and begun to implement the EUR 1 billion Food Facility. He welcomes the renewed attention from other G8 partners to this pressing problem.

In terms of participation, this year's G8 summit will reflect the strong willingness of G8 leaders to develop the dialogue with their global partners and to make it an integral and important part of the summit while also building bridges towards other ongoing processes, notably the UN climate negotiations, specially the ones about the UN Climate Change Conference which will be held in Copenhagen in December 2009, and the G20.