False: Washington had organised the "sherpa calls" for the next G20 in Pittsburgh.
Source: whitehouse (obama explains how g8-g20 are integrated)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-President-Obama-and-Prime-Minister-Berlusconi-in-press-availability-6-15-09/
Source 2: Italian Foreign Minister on Twitter,reported by Press Agency (ansa) and newspaper (corriere della sera),
(Update) Source 3: Mr. Mike Froman (USA G8 Sherpa) officially declared that the reported news concerning a conference call among sherpas in order to correct the presumed Italian inefficiency is completely FALSE. As stated by Italian officials the conference call was made in order to prepare the Pittsburgh G20.
2. The behind-the-scenes grumbling has gone as far as suggestions that Italy could be pushed out of the G8 or any successor group. One possibility being floated in European capitals is that Spain, which has higher per capita national income and gives a greater percentage of GDP in aid, would take Italy's place
False: Spanish economy (GDP) is 30% smaller than italian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) Per capita national income is not a good criteria for G8, or the next G8 members will be :
1 Liechtenstein
2 Qatar
3 Luxembourg
4 Bermuda
5 Kuwait
6 Jersey
7 Norway
8 Brunei
as CIA suggest in its world factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html. Please considerer the data are from 2007-2008, as always the factbook is about the year before (they can't forecast 2009!). Spain is not even in G14 or in G20:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-20_major_economies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G14_(nations)
3. and gives a greater percentage of GDP in aid, would take Italy's place
False: percentage of GDP in aid is a wrong criteria too. In dollars, the italian aid is more generous than spanish. That's is a base arithmetic - a same percentage of a lower GDP it means less dollars. Also in most years italian aid exceed Spain in dollars AND in percentage :
www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/18/37790990.pdf (2005).
Also that statistic did not count the contribution of italian catholic NGOs(vatican here!) That are really importat part, for example consider the US foundation donation are less than religious one or NGOs, as reported at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_aid
4. "The G8 is a club, and clubs have membership dues. Italy has not been paying them," said a European official involved in the summit preparations.
Unprofessional: the article is based on an 'anonymous' font, who told to Mr. Borger a lot of lies (1,2,3,5,6). And he doesn't verified his sources, very bad.
5. The US-led talks led to agreement on a food security initiative a few days before the L'Aquila meeting,
False: the food security is an italian initiative for the meeting and italians care about FOOD!
... yeah i'm joking about a clichè of italians :P
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/EN/news/2008/1000890/index.html
so that means :
6. "The Italians [..] did not have a vision of the summit"
is False too. And also it's an author opinion, not a fact! For example a news about g-8 preparatory meeting about environment : http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/News/Esteri/?id=3.0.3512285693
7. Silvio Berlusconi has come in for harsh criticism for delivering only 3% of development aid promises made four years ago
Maybe that's the problem. Mr Berlusconi is a bad leader, but that's not enough to expel Italy from G8. Did someone suggest to expel USA because of Bush ? but the political administration changes.
2. The behind-the-scenes grumbling has gone as far as suggestions that Italy could be pushed out of the G8 or any successor group. One possibility being floated in European capitals is that Spain, which has higher per capita national income and gives a greater percentage of GDP in aid, would take Italy's place
False: Spanish economy (GDP) is 30% smaller than italian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) Per capita national income is not a good criteria for G8, or the next G8 members will be :
1 Liechtenstein
2 Qatar
3 Luxembourg
4 Bermuda
5 Kuwait
6 Jersey
7 Norway
8 Brunei
as CIA suggest in its world factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html. Please considerer the data are from 2007-2008, as always the factbook is about the year before (they can't forecast 2009!). Spain is not even in G14 or in G20:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-20_major_economies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G14_(nations)
3. and gives a greater percentage of GDP in aid, would take Italy's place
False: percentage of GDP in aid is a wrong criteria too. In dollars, the italian aid is more generous than spanish. That's is a base arithmetic - a same percentage of a lower GDP it means less dollars. Also in most years italian aid exceed Spain in dollars AND in percentage :
www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/18/37790990.pdf (2005).
Also that statistic did not count the contribution of italian catholic NGOs(vatican here!) That are really importat part, for example consider the US foundation donation are less than religious one or NGOs, as reported at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_aid
4. "The G8 is a club, and clubs have membership dues. Italy has not been paying them," said a European official involved in the summit preparations.
Unprofessional: the article is based on an 'anonymous' font, who told to Mr. Borger a lot of lies (1,2,3,5,6). And he doesn't verified his sources, very bad.
5. The US-led talks led to agreement on a food security initiative a few days before the L'Aquila meeting,
False: the food security is an italian initiative for the meeting and italians care about FOOD!
... yeah i'm joking about a clichè of italians :P
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/EN/news/2008/1000890/index.html
so that means :
6. "The Italians [..] did not have a vision of the summit"
is False too. And also it's an author opinion, not a fact! For example a news about g-8 preparatory meeting about environment : http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/News/Esteri/?id=3.0.3512285693
7. Silvio Berlusconi has come in for harsh criticism for delivering only 3% of development aid promises made four years ago
Maybe that's the problem. Mr Berlusconi is a bad leader, but that's not enough to expel Italy from G8. Did someone suggest to expel USA because of Bush ? but the political administration changes.
