Brussels, 18/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - Switzerland will take part in European efforts to introduce the Galileo and EGNOS satellite navigation systems. Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, welcomed this development and said: “This co-operation will not only help to provide better results for the EU's satellite navigation services, it will also open up a series of business opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises both from Switzerland and the EU”. Switzerland thus joins Norway, another non-EU country, in this project. Switzerland has already contributed to Galileo by providing state-of-the-art hydrogen-maser clocks used by the Galileo satellites. It will now fully participate financially in the programmes and will retroactively contribute €80 million for the period 2008-2013. Its contribution for the next period will be calculated on a pro rata basis of the contributions made by other EU member states. Cooperation will also extend to other areas such as security, export controls, standards, certification and industrial cooperation. (MD/transl.fl)