G8/G20

What the world is witnessing in the Los Cabos G20 Summit is one more step in a sequence of global and regional summits which define the process by which governments of major countries work through the complexity of global challenges and their relations with domestic politics. 

This morning in Los Cabos, Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission and Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Union, gave a joint press conference. In it, EC President Barroso said, that content is more important than pace in the economic reform process in Europe.

As my colleague, Fred Kuntz, points out, for journalists attending the Los Cabos summit, the idyllic setting makes it difficult to concentrate on the enormity of the challenges confronting G20 leaders. Nevertheless, the importance of those challenges was evident early on Monday. Despite the Greek election results, which provided an all-too-brief "relief rally" in financial markets, Spanish bond yields hit new euro-era highs, leading to renewed concerns for the European banking system.

This is the weirdest part, Act Two in the usual four-act play of global summitry.

Everything that comes before the G20 Leaders Summit amounts to Act One. At the front of the stage, you’ll see the media, academia and think tanks publicly analyzing the problems and the politics, recommending policy solutions. Backstage during this opening scene, the G20 teams of bureaucrats behind each national leader – the so-called “sherpas” – are busy negotiating possible wins that might become public at the summit.

Angel Gurria, the Secretary General of the OECD, was first off the mark with pre-G20 summit briefings in Los Cabos. He gave a press conference last night against a backdrop of heightened concerns about rising unemployment and, he warned, rising inequality—particularly in countries struggling with the euro crisis and in the grips of fiscal austerity. The vote in Greece today gives his concerns a concrete focal point.