On 10 April 2024 neutral Switzerland’s Federal Council approved the country’s participation in the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI): a German-led project intended to co-ordinate Europe’s air and missile defence networks.
“By participating in the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), Switzerland is increasing its international co-operation opportunities,” the Swiss Federal Council stated on its website. “At its meeting on 10 April the Federal Council approved the declaration of accession to the ESSI Cooperative Procurement Framework Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
“The MoU sets out the general provisions according to which the participating states can implement the projects and programmes for the co-operative procurement of [air defence] systems within the framework of the ESSI,” the Federal Council stated. “It also regulates how participating states can exchange information on the possibilities in other areas of co-operation, such as logistics or military training and exercises. Within the framework of the ESSI, separate programme agreements can be concluded for individual projects and programmes.”
The Federal Council added that “Even after the signing of the membership declaration, Switzerland remains free to decide where and to which extent it plans to participate in ESSI and which [air defence] systems it plans to acquire.”
In October 2022 15 European states – Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and the United Kingdom – declared they would join the ESSI. Denmark and Sweden then joined in February 2023, while in July 2023 Switzerland, along with fellow neutral state Austria, signed a declaration of intent to join the initiative. In February 2024 it was announced that Greece and Turkey would also join.
The ESSI aims to reduce costs for countries through the co-ordination of their procurement of air and missile defence systems, as well as facilitating co-operation in training, maintenance and logistics.
