On September 28, 2026, the United States notified the Council of Europe that it is withdrawing from GRECO, the Group of States against Corruption, which the U.S. joined in 2000. Only Russia (2023) and Belarus (2024) have left before, the AP and the Guardian reported. The State Department: “The era of writing blank checks to international bureaucracies is over,” adding that membership “does not provide tangible benefits to U.S. national security.” The Council of Europe said GRECO “remains open to resuming cooperation with the United States in the future.”
GRECO's 2025 budget was about €3 million, the Guardian reported. Its December 2023 evaluation of the United States noted that the president and vice president are exempt from most federal conflict-of-interest rules and made ten recommendations. In January the U.S. also left the Council of Europe's Venice Commission (see For the First Time Since 2002, International Observers Say They Have Not Been Invited to Watch a U.S. Federal Election).