G20 Foundation Research G20 Russia Summit 2013 | Page 9
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[Evaluation of the G20 Leaders Summit in St Petersburg on September 5-6]
at the same time this topic is not mentioned in the final communique of the summit
at all; this marks an unresolved discrepancy between the G20’s initial role as
(economic) agenda-setter (long-term questions e.g. solid public finances, foster
economic growth) and its new role as a forum where ‘daily politics’ is discussed.
Relation to existing International Institutions: The summit agreement between the
five BRICS countries to establish a $100 billion funds to protect themselves against
exchange (and interest) rate volatility as well as to foster public investment
demonstrates once again the still unresolved relationship between existing
internat ional institutions (IMF, World Bank, WTO) and the G20; a pending IMF
governance reform is still blocked by US opposition apart from G20 calls for action
(#52); accordingly the G20 states that Regional Financing Agreements (RFAs) can
be an important complement to the IMF (#55), also with the goal to increase the
influence of developing countries.
With respect to these challenges and future coordination, we agree with the analysis
of DGAP 16 that defines four key competences of the G20 as a forum of informal
Dialogue, long-term agenda-setting, quick crisis response and coordination and
coordination between industrialized and developing countries.
To avoid “agenda creep” and deal with the challenges mentioned above DGAP
proposes a more active agenda management that takes into account the following
three criteria when deliberating the inclusion of a topic in the G20 agenda:
o
Governance Gap: Is there an alternative, already existing International
Institution that can deal with the issue in an adequate way?
o
Subsidiarity: Does the problem have highest political urgency or can it be
solved on a lower technocratic level of alternative international institutions?
o
Complementarity: Does G20 coordination with respect to this topic foster
existing international institutions or does it hinder future progress?
16
DGAP, “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik”, https://dgap.org/de/think-tank/publikationen/dgapanalyse-
kompakt/fuenf-jahre-g20-konzentration-auf-kernaufgaben