Italy’s Corriere della Sera, on the eve of the G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, runs a story on The Guardian’s pronouncement that ‘there is growing pressure from other member states to have Italy expelled from the group.’

In it’s article, The Guardian quotes several Western officials and cites their discontent with Italy’s organizing of the summit:

In the last few weeks before the summit, and in the absence of any substantive initiatives on the agenda, the US has taken control. Washington has organised “sherpa calls” (conference calls among senior officials) in a last-ditch bid to inject purpose into the meeting.

“For another country to organise the sherpa calls is just unprecedented. It’s a nuclear option,” said one senior G8 member state official. “The Italians have been just awful. There have been no processes and no planning.”

“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.

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.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini fought back at the possibility that his country would be ousted from the club of wealthy nations: ‘It’s buffoonery. I hope The Guardian will be thrown out of the Big Newspapers Club.”

Corriere points to New York University analyst Richard Gowan’s comment against the Berlusconi presidency: “The Italians have no ideas and have decided that best thing to do is to spread the agenda extremely thinly to obscure the fact that didn’t really have an agenda.”

The Guardian points to an alternative, which economist Jeffrey Sachs already mentioned in an exclusive interview to Daily Babel, which sees the G8 fading out for a more inclusive G20-like organization.

The most likely replacement for the G8 is likely to be between 13- and 16-strong, including rising powers such as China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, which currently attend meetings as the “outreach five” But any transition would be painful as countries jostle for a seat. Italy’s removal is seen in a possibility but Spanish membership in its place is unlikely. The US and the emerging economies believe the existing group is too Euro-centric already, and would prefer consolidated EU representation. That is seen as unlikely. No European state wants to give up their place at the table.

Posted by our contributors Alessandro Passanti and Andrew Giacalone