US Pulls Out of Council of Europe's Anti-Corruption Watchdog GRECO

The United States has withdrawn from the Group of States against Corruption, or GRECO, the Council of Europe's anti-corruption monitoring body, in the latest move by the Trump administration to distance itself from multilateral organisations it says overstep their mandates, operate inefficiently or fail to adapt to American policies.

The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe said on Tuesday that Washington had formally notified it of the decision. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of a State Department announcement, confirmed the withdrawal and said the notification had been submitted a day earlier.

The Council of Europe said the US had been a participant in GRECO since 2000 and had contributed to its work and to the sharing of experience and good practice in preventing and combating corruption. It added that GRECO remained open to resuming cooperation with Washington in future to support shared efforts against corruption, in strengthening integrity and in upholding the rule of law.

Only two other countries have previously left the body: Russia and Belarus.

GRECO was set up by the Council of Europe in 1999 to monitor compliance with the organisation's anti-corruption standards. Its membership is not restricted to European Union states, and the US joined a year after it was founded.

The withdrawal comes a week after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Washington had declined to invite its members to observe November's congressional midterm elections, a departure from past practice.

The US has already exited several European-based United Nations and multilateral agencies, including the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council, and is considering further such steps. In January it left another Council of Europe body, the Venice Commission, which advises on constitutional law.