Switzerland will join the ‘military Schengen’ programme aimed at facilitating military mobility in Europe. This was announced on 13 January on the website of the Council of the European Union.
‘Today’s decision authorises the Netherlands as coordinator of the PESCO Military Mobility project to formally invite Switzerland to join the project in response to Switzerland’s request of September 2024,’ the statement reads.
It is specified that the country will become an official member of the programme after it concludes an administrative agreement with the project.
Switzerland’s leadership asked to join the EU’s Military Mobility project, also known as the Military Schengen project, on 21 August 2024. It was created by the EU in 2014 after Crimea’s reunification with Russia. It got its name due to its focus on facilitating military mobility within Europe through faster processing of border crossing requests.
On 22 August 2024, the Russian embassy in Bern said that Switzerland’s joining the EU’s ‘military Schengen’ contradicts the neutrality declared by the country.
Later, on 3 September of the same year, German political scientist Christoph Herstl told Izvestia that Switzerland’s rejection of its neutral status in favour of NATO would significantly affect the country. From his point of view, this decision was influenced by Western propaganda inside Switzerland against Russia, which began after the Partnership for Peace programme was implemented jointly with the United States in 1996.
