The United States has formally withdrawn from GRECO, the Council of Europe's anti-corruption monitoring body. Here is what the group is, why Washington left, and what changes.

**What is GRECO?** The Group of States against Corruption is the Council of Europe's anti-graft watchdog. It runs peer-review rounds in which member countries evaluate each other's laws and institutions against corruption — covering lawmakers, judges, prosecutors and top officials. The US had been a member since 2000.

**Why did the US quit?** The State Department said on September 29 that GRECO 'does not provide tangible benefits to US national security' and that the era of writing 'blank checks' for international organisations is over. The exit fits a pattern: this administration has already left the WHO, the UN Human Rights Council and the Venice Commission, and snubbed OSCE election observers.

**Who else has left?** Before the US, only Russia and Belarus had exited — both amid broader breaks with European institutions. That company has drawn criticism from anti-corruption advocates.

**What changes?** Practically, little changes for US law enforcement, already seen as among the world's toughest. Symbolically, it weakens a peer-review system built on universal participation.