GETTY Switzerland has withdrawn its application to join the EU

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The vote came from the Government's lower house as the Swiss foreign minister Didier Burkhalter told the bloc to "consider the application as withdrawn". Mr Burkhalter said the motion is "unnecessary" because Switzerland does not intend to join and should be considered an "independent sovereign nation".

Independent Swiss MP Thomas Minder said he wanted to the debate to be "short and painless" as the country dropped its 24-year-old dormant application. Switzerland has never been a member of EU but has accepted free trade with the union since the 1970s as well as accepting free movement of people as a member of the Schengen zone. Two years ago the Swiss public voted in a referendum to impose immigration quotas but Brussels refused to grant the request, threatening to block its free trade access if it wanted to curb free movement.

The move comes as Britain casts doubts over its membership to the bureaucratic Brussels club. Speaking on a special Question Time show, Michael Gove dismissed the Remain campaign’s doom-laden warnings about the economic impact of Brexit, saying it would be a "win-win economically". WHICH COUNTRIES ARE WAITING TO JOIN THE EU?

GETTY Swiss MP Didier Burkhalter told to the EU to 'consider its application withdrawn'

EU referendum Thu, June 23, 2016 As the Brexit debate continues, we take a look at the Leave and Remain campaigns so far. Play slideshow 1 of 34