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1. The Commission shall appoint independent experts to assist in the ethics screening and assessment as referred to in Article 7 of this Regulation and in the evaluation of proposals pursuant to Article 237 of the Financial Regulation.

2. The independent experts referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be nationals of as broad a range of Member States as possible and shall be selected on the basis of calls for expressions of interest addressed to ministries of defence and subordinated agencies, other relevant governmental bodies, research institutes, universities, business associations or enterprises of the defence sector with a view to establishing a list of independent experts. By way of derogation from Article 237 of the Financial Regulation, the list of independent experts shall not be made public.

3. The security credentials of appointed independent experts shall be validated by the relevant Member State.

4. The committee referred to in Article 34 shall be informed of the list of independent experts, in order to be transparent as to their security credentials, on an annual basis. The Commission shall ensure that independent experts do not evaluate, advise or assist on matters with regard to which they have any conflicts of interest.

5. The independent experts shall be chosen on the basis of their skills, experience and knowledge relevant to the tasks to be assigned to them.