President of the European Research Council (ERC) Mauro Ferrari told the Financial Times newspaper on Wednesday that he had resigned following a failure to secure support for his plan on how to combat the coronavirus pandemic at EU institutions
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th April, 2020) President of the European Research Council (ERC) Mauro Ferrari told the Financial Times newspaper on Wednesday that he had resigned following a failure to secure support for his plan on how to combat the coronavirus pandemic at EU institutions.
"I arrived at the ERC a fervent supporter of the EU [but] the Covid-19 crisis completely changed my views, though the ideals of international collaboration I continue to support with enthusiasm," Ferrari said in a statement to the newspaper, adding that he was "extremely disappointed" by the bloc's response to the pandemic.
According to the newspaper, the official, who took office this year, submitted his resignation to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday afternoon.
Ferrari said that he had developed a special plan to fight the coronavirus at von der Leyen's request, but his plan was passed on to different layers of the European Commission, "where ... it disintegrated upon impact."
"The very fact that I worked directly with her created an internal political thunderstorm," he added.
According to a commission spokesperson, 50 ongoing or completed ERC projects were contributing to the response to the pandemic, the newspaper reported, adding that some members of the ERC's Scientific Council disagreed with Ferrari's idea to focus on a short-term pandemic response, as other EU structures should do this.
The ERC was set up in 2007 to fund the best European scientists and has since become one of the world's most prestigious funding agencies with a budget of around two billion Euros ($ 2.17 billion) a year.
