1.The Fund's financial contribution shall take the form of grants.
2.Actions supported by the Fund shall be co-financed by public or private sources, shall be of a non-profit nature and shall not be eligible for funding from other sources covered by the general budget of the European Union.
3.Fund appropriations shall be complementary to public or equivalent expenditure allocated by Member States to the measures covered by this Decision.
4.The Community contribution to supported projects, as regards actions implemented in the Member States under Article 4, shall not exceed 50 % of the total cost of a specific action.
This may be increased to 75 % for projects addressing specific priorities identified in the strategic guidelines as defined in Article 16.
The Community contribution shall be increased to 75 % in the Member States covered by the Cohesion Fund.
5.Within the framework of the implementation of national programming as set out in Chapter IV, Member States shall select projects for financing on the basis of the following minimum criteria:
(a)the situation and requirements in the Member State;
(b)the cost-effectiveness of the expenditure, inter alia in view of the number of persons concerned by the project;
(c)the experience, expertise, reliability and financial contribution of the organisation applying for funding and any partner organisation;
(d)the extent to which the project complements other actions funded by the general budget of the European Union or as part of national programmes.
6.As a general rule, Community financial aid for actions supported by the Fund shall be granted for a period of no more than three years, subject to periodic progress reports.