Big Four (Western Europe)


The Big Four, also known as G4, refers to France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. These countries are considered major European powers and they are the Western European countries individually represented as full members of the G7, the G8, the G10 and the G20. France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom have been referred to as the "Big Four of Europe" since the interwar period. The term G4 was used for the first time when French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a meeting in Paris with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown and Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel to consider the response to the financial crisis during the Great Recession. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development describes them as the "Four Big European Countries".

Issues

The leaders of the four countries usually have a series of joint video conference calls with the US president, or with other leaders, on international issues. With Barack Obama they discussed for example the TTIP, the Syrian civil war and the use of chemical weapons during the conflict, the Crimean Crisis and international sanctions against Russia, the post-civil war violence in Libya, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the 2014 American intervention in Iraq and the Ebola virus disease. With Russia's President Vladimir Putin, they discussed, for example, the Vienna peace talks for Syria.

Statistics

, where procedure indicates a qualified majority vote, requires a double majority of at least 55% of EU member states and 65% of EU population to adopt Commission proposals. This increases to 72% of EU member states and 65% of EU population when the proposal originates from a member state.

History

France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy have been referred to as the "Big Four of Europe" since the interwar period, when the four countries signed the Four-Power Pact and the Munich Agreement. Britain and France, permanent members of the League of Nations' executive council along with Italy and Japan, were involved in a policy of appeasement towards Germany. World War II saw China, France, United Kingdom, Russia and the U.S. fighting against Germany, Italy and Japan. The defeat of the axis powers resulted in the formation of the United Nations, where the five victorious countries were granted a permanent seat in the Security Council. Germany, Italy and Japan experienced a post-war economic miracle and took part in the 1st G6 summit along with France, the UK and the U.S. in 1975.
Since 1945, France and Great Britain have often acted alone in defence policy matters while Germany and Italy have preferred to act within the framework of international organisations. For example, France, Germany, Italy and the UK were the EU countries represented in the Syria peace talks, but only France and the UK are directly bombing ISIS in Syria, while Germany and Italy prefer to give military aid and to send training troops.
with EU4 leaders Hollande, Cameron, Merkel and Renzi during the 2014 Wales summit

Quint

The Quint is an informal decision-making group consisting of five Western powers: the United States and the Big Four. It operates as a "directoire" of various entities such as NATO and the G8/G20.

Brexit

A European Union membership referendum took place on Thursday 23 June 2016 in the UK and resulted in an overall vote to leave the EU, by 51.9%. The British government have triggered Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union to start the process to leave the EU, which concluded on January 31, 2020. The G4 now consists of the UK and the new EU big three, the large founding members of the European Communities that have retaken a leading role in Europe following the decision of the UK to leave the EU.

Current government leaders