Former UK Prime Minister and one-time  Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown , is leading the charge by world leaders who believe the G-20 has become too Euro-centric and should be open to other world economic powers. Brown didn’t mince his words at a meeting in March of the Brussels Forum, sponsored by the German Marshall Fund. “The G20 has got to represent the G192,” he said referring to all the current members of the United Nations. “We’ve got to give every country a role” either directly or indirectly through representation.”

Several panelists agreed that the G20 has a legitimacy problem with Europeans being overrepresented.  World Bank President Robert Zoellick of the US, thought it “a little odd that of those 25 - 26 at the table, about nine are European.”  He added that Europe already has good regional representation through the European Commission and the EU presidency.

Zoellick suggested the G20 play a role as a steering group.  “It needs to figure out how to use existing institutions,” he said, to move its agenda forward and he called for a more accountable organization.  “If an international grouping doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t matter who is at the table. At the end of they day, people won’t respect it”.

Pascal Lamy, the director of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed that the G20 should “switch to a constituency system” but cautioned against institutionalizing the G20 and creating yet another bureaucracy.  Panelists broadly agreed with Brown adding that one country should represent a number of countries, “as happens at the IMF.” He said that in the end “it’s got to be a G192 … with 20-30 people who are sitting down at the table (being) more representative of the continents and the regions from which they come.”

Otherwise he said, the voices of Africa, Asia and Latin America will not be heard, “and clearly the voices of the Middle East and North Africa are ones that are not being heard at the moment in international forums they way they should.”

European dominance in international organizations has been a key issue addressed in many other forums recently. Last year the World Bank reformed its voting system, leading to a slight drop in EU members’ total voting weight (from 28% to 26%).  And last October the G20 agreed to reduce European voting rights and seats at the IMF beginning in 2012. Moves to give the EU full speaking rights at the UN General Assembly were also blocked last September by emerging countries.