US withdraws from European anti-corruption panel in latest shift away from global groups
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has withdrawn the United States from a top European anti-corruption watchdog as it forges ahead with plans to disengage from international and multilateral organizations that it accuses of exceeding their mandates, being inefficient or not adapting to U.S. policies.
The Council of Europe said Tuesday that the U.S. formally notified it a day earlier that it would leave the Group of States against Corruption, or GRECO. Only two other countries have left GRECO before — Russia and Belarus.
The State Department confirmed the move, saying that U.S. participation, which requires an annual monetary contribution, “does not provide tangible benefits to U.S. national security.”
“The era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over,” it said. “The department is instead prioritizing higher-impact tools to combat corruption, such as visa restrictions, sanctions, and targeted foreign assistance to strengthen foreign criminal investigations into corruption directly threatening U.S. security and prosperity.”
The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe said the U.S. had been “a valuable contributor” to GRECO “and to the exchange of experience and good practice in preventing and combating corruption.”
“GRECO remains open to resuming cooperation with the United States in the future in support of shared efforts to prevent corruption, strengthen integrity and uphold the rule of law,” it said in a statement.
The decision was announced a week after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the U.S. had declined to invite its members to observe November’s congressional midterm elections, a sharp break from past practice.
The U.S. has already withdrawn from a number of European-based U.N. and multilateral agencies, including the World Health Organization and the U.N. Human Rights Council, and is weighing further such steps.
The U.S. withdrew in January from another Council of Europe panel — the Venice Commission, which is an advisory body on constitutional law.
GRECO was created in 1999 by the Council of Europe to monitor compliance with the organization’s anti-corruption standards. Membership is not limited to European Union members, and the United States joined a year after its founding.