(36th G8 Conference/Creative Commons)

the G8 (Group of Eight) meeting is the main focus of the President's three-day European tour, his first trip in over two years.

The group includes Canada, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, France and Britain. Russia was invited to join in 1997.

The struggling European economy will make up the bulk discussions, as dragging economies Germany, France, Italy and other G8 countries  account for almost half of the world's economic activity, according to the Washington Post.

A new trade negotiation between the 27-nation European Union and the United States will also be discussed.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said that a successful conclusion to negotiations would deliver “more jobs, lower prices in our shops and help for hard-working families."

However, Snowden's recent disclosure of the NSA's over-reaching data collection program caused European leaders to question how the millions of Europeans who use U.S. telecommunications and Internet companies were affected. G8 leaders will most likely raise questions as to how data-storage rules and protections for intellectual property will play into the new trade agreement. 

The Prime Minister also said that Russia, like all G8 governments, has a responsibility to push opposed factions in Syria’s civil war to the negotiating table as rapidly as possible and not to back a government that “butchers” its citizens.

SEE ALSO: Russia Sends Missiles To Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin defended his stance on Syria, responding defensively after being asked at at meeting in London if he had blood on his hands for providing military support to the Assad government:

“One hardly should back those who kill their enemies and, you know, eat their organs,” he said, referring to widely publicized film footage in which a member of an anti-Assad militia appears to eat part of a dead government soldier.

In a news conference on the eve of the summit, the Toronto Star reported that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper blasted Putin and suggested Russia had no place at the G8 roundtable.

SEE ALSO: The Obama Administration Confirms Chemical Weapons Used In Syria

“Mr. Putin and his government are supporting the thugs of the Assad regime for their own reasons that I do not think are justifiable and Mr. Putin knows my view on that,” Harper said in Dublin on Sunday.

Mr. Putin and President Obama will hold a separate one-on-one meeting discussing the U.S.'s confirmation that Syria used chemical weapons against its people and Obama's decision to provide military support to rebels.

Read more G8 coverage at the Washington Post and The New York Times

Reach editor-in-chief Brianna Sacks here