The situation is similar with respect to the required minimum number of signatures per candidate or party list. In some states they are fairly modest (e.g. 200-500 signatures per district in Austria and Belgium), but not so in all states or across all different context. Thus, when Italy used a mixed system, it required 500 signatures for candidates in single member districts, but 1500-1400 for party lists. The requirement sometimes becomes quite fierce: in Norway, for instance, 5,000 signatures are required per party. This may function as an important threshold barring minor parties from access to the ballot and, therefore, parliament.