French reserve right to bribe

France has been pressured to lift a reservation to the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, which allows it to permit its companies to bribe foreign officials. The council’s anticorruption group GRECO notes that France “reserves the right not to [criminalise] trading in influence to exert an influence over… a foreign public official or… foreign public assembly.” A GRECO report said: “France has severely restricted its jurisdiction and its ability to prosecute cases with an international dimension…”