1.Community aid shall be granted, in principle, only if achievement of a project meets financial obstacles.
2.Community aid shall not exceed the minimum considered necessary for the launch of a project.
3.Regardless of the form of intervention chosen, the total amount of Community aid under this Regulation shall not exceed 10 % of the total investment cost. However, the total amount of Community aid may exceptionally reach 20 % of the total investment cost in the following cases:
(a)projects concerning satellite positioning and navigation systems, as provided for in Article 17 of Decision No 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 1996 on Community guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network(1);
(b)priority projects on the energy networks;
(c)sections of the projects of European interest, provided that the projects are started before 2010, identified in Annex III to Decision No 1692/96/EC with the aim of eliminating bottlenecks and/or filling in missing sections, if such sections are cross border or cross natural barriers, and contribute to the integration of the internal market in an enlarged Community, promote safety, ensure the interoperability of the national networks and/or strongly contribute to the reduction of imbalances between modes of transport, in favour of the most environment-friendly modes. This rate shall be differentiated according to the benefits to other countries, in particular neighbouring Member States.
In the case of projects of common interest identified in Annex I to Decision No 1336/97/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 1997 on a series of guidelines for trans-European telecommunications networks(2), the total amount of Community aid granted under this Regulation may reach 30 % of the total investment cost.
4.The financial resources provided for under this Regulation shall not, in principle, be assigned to projects or stages of projects which benefit from other sources of Community funding.
5.In the case of projects referred to in paragraph 3, within the limits of this Regulation, the legal commitment shall be multiannual and the budgetary commitments shall be met in annual instalments.