It is important to distinguish between criteria relating to the qualification of an applicant to participate in the selection phase of a licensing process and criteria for the actual selection of a successful licensee from among the qualified applicants.
Qualification criteria serve to determine which parties will have the right to advance to the selection phase of the licensing process. Selection criteria are used to determine which applicant will be awarded the licence or licences.
In the case of a general authorization, only the qualification criteria are relevant because no competitive selection is made. In the case of a selection process for an individual licence, both qualification and selection criteria are normally developed. It is generally advisable to conduct a licensing process in at least two phases. The qualification phase is completed first. For less complex licensing processes, the pre-qualification and qualification phases are sometimes combined as one. Only qualified applicants participate in the second phase – the licensee selection process.