The idea of promoting a parliamentary dimension of the G7* was launched in 2001 at the initiative of the then President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Luciano Violante, in response to the need to create a democratic circuit of political representation to deal with globalisation-related phenomena.

The G7 parliamentary meeting follows the traditional rotating G7 governmental meetings and is hosted, every year, by the Lower House of the country that currently holds the G7 Presidency.

The purpose of the Speakers and Presidents' Meeting is to foster an exchange of experiences, opinions and information in a rapidly changing world.
The Speakers and Presidents of the Lower Houses of Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States are invited to the meetings; since the 2008 Berlin meeting, the President of the European Parliament has also been invited to attend. Since 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the President of the Ukrainian Parliament has also been invited to the meetings with observer status. The latest and 21^st G7 Speakers’ Meeting convened on 8 to 10 September 2023, in Tokyo, under the Japanese Presidency.

In 2024, coinciding with Italy's annual G7 Presidency, the meeting of Speakers and Presidents of the Lower Houses will be hosted by the Chamber of Deputies in Verona on 5-7 September.

The Chamber of Deputies has hosted the G7 parliamentary meeting on two previous occasions:
- its 15^th meeting - Rome and Naples, 7 - 10 September 2017
- its 8^th meeting - Rome, 12 - 13 September 2009. On the latter occasion, one of the sessions included the participation of the Speakers and Presidents of the Lower Houses of Brazil, China, India, Egypt, South Africa and Mexico.

* Originally the G8 format had been used, which was reduced to G7 following Russia's suspension and the application of sanctions in 2014, at the start of the Ukraine crisis. The 13^th meeting of the G8 Speakers and Presidents had been scheduled to convene in 2014 in Russia, which would have held the annual rotating Presidency that year, but the Speakers and Presidents of the Lower Houses of the other member countries decided not to attend. The following year, the customary meeting was held in Leipzig in the G7 format, without Russia.