Seven countries with significant weight in the world economy (Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the United States, Canada and Japan) and the European Commission between 24 and 26 August. The summit will be held in Biarritz. In recent decades, the G7 is a forum that has managed the world economy with the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank.

The G7 does not have the legitimacy of an international organisation. But there is no need for it, because because of the economic capacity of its members, the decisions taken often come into force. It is a wealthy association which strives to defend the economic interests of its large companies and for that it does not need the consent of anyone. The defense of these particular interests generates crises, inequalities and destruction of the planet. Furthermore, the nature of the organisation calls into question the legitimacy of the UN, which has already announced its withdrawal. Therefore, for global governance it does not bring anything good.

This summit will be conditioned by protectionism and unilateral policies, inequalities, climate change and the digitalisation of the economy of the United States and other countries. In order to meet these challenges, traditional liberal recipes will be put on the table again and again, with the aim of hampering the economic and social transformation necessary to overcome these serious problemas.Las five priorities set by Macron for this summit
are key to the political and economic agenda: fighting for inequalities, especially of gender and the environment; boosting fair trade; strengthening the peace initiative and harnessing the intelligence and the possibilities of artificial intelligence. In any event, on 27 August we will be far from taking effective steps to develop these challenges. The outcome of the G20 meeting in Osaka in June (against all Trump) could be repeated. The media will denounce Trump’s attitude towards protectionism and, on the contrary, applaud the other advocates of multilateralism. But that picture puts aside the responsibility of liberal multilateralism that has been in place for decades, precisely in the push of the extreme right protectionist, Brexit and climate change.

The defence of multilateral real-world governance does not correspond to a private partnership without democratic legitimacy. The only legitimate framework for multilateralism is the modernized and democratized United Nations Organization. And along this path, a formula like the G7, which represents only 10% of the world's population, is an obstacle rather than support.

On the other hand, Macron, Merkel or Trudeau, who denounce Trump’s protectionism, are betting on an uneven international trade order. Indeed, the free trade that has reached today has had negative effects on the environment, employment, income inequalities or local development. And on the wave of those damages, Brexit, Trump, Bolsonaro, etc. have risen.

In other words, the Western liberal authorities do not give any effective response to the ecological and social disasters caused by globalisation. In addition to recognising these damages, it is essential to establish strong and direct regulatory measures to respond to the challenges of this century, especially in the areas of employment, inequalities and climate change. Another democratic and social governance must put in place common and effective responses to ensure that the world has a fair future.