Washington: The United States under the Trump administration has withdrawn from a top European anti-corruption watchdog as it forges ahead with plans to disengage from international and multilateral organisations that it accuses of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.
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The Council of Europe said Tuesday that the US formally notified it that it would leave the Group of States against Corruption, or GRECO. Only two other countries have left GRECO before: Russia and Belarus.
A US official confirmed the withdrawal and said it had been submitted on Monday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the move ahead of a public announcement from the State Department.
“The United States has participated in GRECO since 2000 and has been a valuable contributor to its work and to the exchange of experience and good practice in preventing and combating corruption,” the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe said in a statement. “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.”
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The US has already withdrawn from a number of European-based UN and multilateral agencies, including the World Health Organisation and the UN Human Rights Council, and is weighing further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 US 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 United States joined a year after its founding.
