While the meeting at Enniskillen resulted in an overarching policy position by the G8, it was not accompanied by much in the way of immediate policy output. Achieving tangible outcomes was not helped by the diverse issues requiring urgent response – the conflict in Syria, trade, tax avoidance, corporate transparency, as well as other concerns such as tackling poverty, fighting terrorism and maintaining the still fragile economic recovery. Achieving consensus was further undermined by the persistent differences in economic security strategies espoused by various G8 countries. Predictably, the outcome was a G8 communiqué sparse on detailed growth measures, evidence that states’ immediate focus is on finding new ways to fill depleted government coffers.
