Monika Hohlmeier is a Member of the European Parliament since 2009. She serves as the first Vice Chair of the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) and is member of the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT), where she was elected vice coordinator for the EPP group. She also is a substitute member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. She was Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control from 2019 to 2024, where she actively advocated for better transparency and accountability in EU spending as well as the efficient management of EU funds. Before joining the European Parliament, Monika Hohlmeier previously served as the Bavarian Minister for Education and Culture between 1998 and 2005.

Emily O’Reilly was first elected as the European Ombudsman by the European Parliament in 2013 and then re-elected for a five- year mandate in 2014 and again in 2019. She investigates maladministration in the institutions and bodies of the European Union. She was awarded Schwarzkopf Europe Award in 2017 in recognition of her work.

From 2003 until 2013, Ms O’Reilly was Ombudsman and Information Commissioner in Ireland. In 2008 the National University in Ireland conferred her with an Honorary Doctorate in Law and in 2014 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University College Dublin for her commitment as Irish Ombudsman.

As a former journalist Ms O’Reilly’s career attracted significant domestic and international recognition, including a Harvard University Fellowship and multiple national awards. She has written three critically acclaimed books on Irish politics and media and is a current member of the International Advisory Board of Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

Elena Calistru is serving as member of the European Economic and Social Committee on behalf of civil society organizations. She is vicepresident of the ECO section and has been rapporteur & co-rapporteur for opinions such as the “Mid-term evaluation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility”, the “Mid-term review of the Multiannual Financial Framework”, or “Enhancing Fiscal Transparency through Participatory Budgeting in the EU”.

She is coming from Romania, where she is the founder and chair of Funky Citizens, a Romanian NGO that promotes government accountability and transparency through research-based advocacy tools. With over 15 years of experience in civil society projects, Elena's expertise spans good governance, public finance, and advocacy, making her a leading voice in efforts to create a more transparent and participatory fiscal policy, at national and EU level.

Daniel Nigohosyan has more than 17 years of experience with analyses related to the EU Cohesion policy and programme/project cycle and broad experience in managing, coordinating, and implementing evaluations and studies covering various fields, e.g. energy efficiency, regional development, transport, environment, communication activities, and administrative capacity. He has led a number of evaluations in Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and at EU level, including ex-ante evaluations, thematic evaluations, interim evaluations, and impact evaluations of diverse EU policies/programmes. A recent example is the mid-term evaluation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which he co-led. He has broad experience in leading teams and in designing/applying various qualitative (interviews, online questionnaires, public consultations, focus groups, case studies) and quantitative (descriptive statistics, regressions, counterfactual analysis) techniques in line with the Better Regulation Guidelines and Toolbox. Daniel Nigohosyan has a PhD degree in Economics (Sofia University) and holds two MA degrees – in Political Science (CEU, Budapest) and International Relations (UNWE, Sofia).

Ivana Maletić is an experienced economist specialised in public finance, fiscal policy, EU funds and cohesion policy. She is currently serving as a Member of the European Court of Auditors (Chamber IV) since 2019, where she is the reporting Member responsible for several RRF reports, including the recent one on the absorption of the RRF funds. Previously, Ms Maletić was a Member of the European Parliament (2013–2019), actively contributing to the work of the Committees on Economic and Monetary Affairs, Regional Development, as well as the Committee on Budgets. She has also held senior roles in Croatia’s Ministry of Finance, including State Secretary and Assistant Minister and Deputy Chief Negotiator during Croatia’s accession negotiation process. Ms Maletić holds a Master of Science degree in Accounting, Auditing and Finance. She has published numerous books and articles on public finance management, fiscal responsibility and management of EU funds.