1.Projects shall involve beneficiaries from at least one of the participating Member States and one of the participating partner countries listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 232/2014 or the Russian Federation.
2.Beneficiaries are natural or legal persons to whom a grant has been awarded for a project. Natural persons may be beneficiaries, if required by the nature or characteristics of the action or the objective pursued by the applicant. Participation of natural persons shall be decided at programme level.
3.Beneficiaries referred to in paragraph 1 must meet all the following conditions:
(a)nationals of any of the participating countries, or legal persons who are effectively established in the programme area or international organisations with a base of operations in the programme area. A European grouping of territorial cooperation may be a beneficiary, regardless of its place of establishment, provided its geographic coverage is within the programme area;
(b)comply with the eligibility criteria defined for each selection procedure;
(c)not fall under any of the exclusion situations set out in Article 106(1) and Article 107 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012.
4.Beneficiaries that do not meet the criteria referred to in point (a) of paragraph 3 may participate in addition to beneficiaries referred to in paragraph 1, provided that all the following conditions are met:
(a)they may participate in accordance with Articles 8 and 9 of Regulation (EU) No 236/2014;
(b)their participation is required by the nature and by the objectives of the project and as necessary for its effective implementation;
(c)the total amount allocated under the programme to beneficiaries that do not meet the criteria referred to in point (a) of paragraph 3 is within the limit indicated in point (b) of Article 39(2).