Think Ahead. Act Together.

We, the leaders of the G7, met in Elmau for our annual Summit on 7 and 8 June 2015. Guided by our shared values and principles, we are determined to work closely together to meet the complex international economic and political challenges of our times. We are committed to the values of freedom and democracy, and their universality, to the rule of law and respect for human rights, and to fostering peace and security. Especially in view of the numerous crises in the world, we as G7 nations stand united in our commitment to uphold freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The G7 feels a special responsibility for shaping our planet’s future. 2015 is a milestone year for international cooperation and sustainable development issues. The UN Climate Conference in Paris COP 21 is crucial for the protection of the global climate, the UN summit in New York will set the universal global sustainable development agenda for the years to come and the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa will support the implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. We want to provide key impetus for ambitious results. “Think ahead. Act together.” – that is our guiding principle.

We have today agreed on concrete steps with regard to health, the empowerment of women and climate protection, to play our part in addressing the major global challenges and to respond to some of the most pressing issues in the world. Furthermore, in addition to fostering trade as a key engine for growth, putting these concrete steps into action, will help us to achieve our pivotal goal of strong, sustainable and balanced growth as well as job creation. We call on others to join us in pursuing this agenda.

Global Economy

State of the Global Economy

The global economic recovery has progressed since we last met. In some major advanced economies growth is strengthening and prospects have improved. The decline of energy prices has supportive effects in most of the G7 economies. However, many of our economies are still operating below their full potential and more work is needed to achieve our aim of strong, sustainable and balanced growth. Overall G7 unemployment is still too high, although it has decreased substantially in recent years. We also continue to see challenges such as prolonged low inflation rates, weak investment and demand, high public and private debt, sustained internal and external imbalances, geopolitical tensions as well as financial market volatility.

We commit to addressing these challenges and to continuing our efforts to achieve growth for all. Stronger and inclusive growth requires that we confront the vulnerabilities in our economies. To ensure that G7 countries operate at the technological frontier in the years ahead, we will foster growth by promoting education and innovation, protecting intellectual property rights, supporting private investment with a business friendly climate especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, ensuring an appropriate level of public investment, promoting quality infrastructure investment to address shortfalls through effective resource mobilization in partnership with the private sector and increasing productivity by further implementing ambitious structural reforms.

We agree to deliver on past reform commitments in these areas which will increase confidence and lift sustainable growth. We will continue to implement our fiscal strategies flexibly to take into account near-term economic conditions, so as to support growth and job creation, while putting debt as a share of GDP on a sustainable path. We concur that monetary policies should maintain price stability and support economic recovery within the mandate of central banks. We reaffirm our existing G7 exchange rate commitments.

A sound economic basis is a cornerstone for a better life for all people. Putting the world on a sustainable growth path in the long run will require in particular the protection of our climate, the promotion of health and the equal participation of all members of society. Therefore, the G7 commits to putting these issues at the centre of our growth agenda.

Trade

Trade and investment are key drivers of growth, jobs and sustainable development. Fostering global economic growth by reducing barriers to trade remains imperative and we reaffirm our commitment to keep markets open and fight all forms of protectionism, including through standstill and rollback. To that end, we support a further extension of the G20 standstill commitment and call on others to do the same. At the same time, we remain committed to reducing barriers to trade and to improving competitiveness by taking unilateral steps to liberalize our economies. We will protect and promote investment and maintain a level playing field for all investors. International standards for public export finance are key to avoiding or reducing distortions in global trade, and we emphasize our support for the international working group on standards for public export finance.

We are committed to strengthening the rules-based multilateral trading system, including by contributing to full and swift implementation of the WTO Bali package. The focus in 2015 should in particular be on the entry into force of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). To that end, G7 members commit to making every effort to complete their domestic ratification procedures in advance of the Tenth WTO Ministerial Conference (MC 10) in Nairobi this December. We also call for swift agreement by July of a WTO post-Bali work programme that secures a prompt conclusion and balanced outcome of the Doha Round and we fully support ongoing efforts in the WTO to this end. Both the implementation of the TFA and agreement on a post-Bali work programme should lay the ground for a successful MC 10, the first WTO Ministerial to be held in Africa. We stand ready to continue our support to developing countries to help implement the measures agreed in the TFA. We must build on the success of the 2013 WTO Ministerial, which reinvigorated the negotiating pillar of the WTO, and demonstrated that flexibility is achievable within the consensus framework of the WTO. We look forward to the discussions at the G20 on ways to make the multilateral trading system work better, based on input from the WTO.

While strengthening the multilateral trading system remains a priority, we also welcome ongoing efforts to conclude ambitious and high-standard new bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) and look forward to swift progress in plurilateral negotiations, including the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), the expansion of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA). We will work to conclude the expansion of the ITA without delay. These agreements are able to support the multilateral system, contribute to stronger global trade and to more growth and jobs and can act as building blocks for future multilateral agreements. To this end, FTAs need to be transparent, high-standard, and comprehensive as well as consistent with and supportive of the WTO framework.

We welcome progress on major ongoing trade negotiations, including on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the EU-Japan FTA/Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), aimed at reaching ambitious, comprehensive and mutually beneficial agreements. We will make every effort to finalize negotiations on the TPP as soon as possible as well as to reach agreement in principle on the EU-Japan FTA/EPA preferably by the end of the year. We will immediately accelerate work on all TTIP issues, ensuring progress in all the elements of the negotiations, with the goal of finalizing understandings on the outline of an agreement as soon as possible, preferably by the end of this year. We welcome the conclusion of the negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the EU and look forward to its timely entry into force. We will work to ensure that our bilateral and regional FTAs support the global economy.

Development

Post-2015 Agenda for Sustainable Development

2015 is a milestone year for international sustainable development issues. The Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, the UN Summit for the adoption of the Post-2015 agenda in New York and the Climate Change Conference in Paris will set the global sustainable development and climate agenda for the coming years.

We are committed to achieving an ambitious, people-centred, planet-sensitive and universally applicable Post-2015 Agenda for Sustainable Development that integrates the three dimensions of sustainable development – environmental, economic and social – in a balanced manner.

The agenda should complete the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals, end extreme poverty, leave no-one behind, reduce inequality, accelerate the global transition to sustainable economies, promote sustainable management of natural resources, and strengthen peace, good governance and human rights. In order to mobilize appropriate action in and by all countries and by all stakeholders, we support the formulation and communication of key policy messages. We are committed to building a new global partnership based on universality, shared responsibility, mutual accountability, efficient and effective monitoring and review and a multi-stakeholder approach to our common goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and transitioning to sustainable development.

To help foster this new transformative agenda, we have committed to significant measures on global health, food security, climate and marine protection, sustainable supply chains and women’s economic empowerment.

Collectively, we commit to supporting furthering financial and non-financial means of implementation, including through domestic resource mobilization, innovative financing, private finance, official development and other assistance and an ambitious policy framework.

We reaffirm the essential role that official development assistance (ODA) and other international public finance play as a catalyst for, and complement to, other sources of financing for development. We reaffirm our respective ODA commitments, such as the 0.7% ODA/GNI target as well as our commitment to reverse the declining trend of ODA to the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and to better target ODA towards countries where the needs are greatest. We also commit to encouraging private capital flows.