US withdraws from European anti-corruption panel in latest shift away from global groups

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has withdrawn the United States from a top European anti-corruption watchdog as it forges ahead with plans to disengage from international and multilateral organisations that it accuses of exceeding their mandates, being inefficient or not adapting to US policies.

The Council of Europe said Tuesday that the US 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 US participation, which requires an annual monetary contribution, “does not provide tangible benefits to US national security.”

“The era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over,” it said. “The department is instead prioritising higher-impact tools to combat corruption, such as visa restrictions, sanctions, and targeted foreign assistance to strengthen foreign criminal investigations into corruption directly threatening US security and prosperity.”

The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe said the US 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 Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the US had declined to invite its members to observe November’s congressional midterm elections, a sharp break from past practice.

The US has already withdrawn from a number of European-based UN and multilateral agencies, including the World Health Organisation and the UN Human Rights Council, and is weighing further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 organisation’s anti-corruption standards. Membership is not limited to European Union members, and the US joined a year after its founding.