The President of the European Research Council, an EU agency, left the room criticizing the EU’s response to the coronavirus pandemic after all his colleagues had called for his resignation.
Italian Mauro Ferrari announced his resignation in a letter to the British daily Financial times, in which he explains “having lost faith in the system”.
The European Commission confirmed on Wednesday the resignation, which was given Tuesday April 7, and which “takes effect immediately as requested,” said a spokesman for the EU executive.
The European executive said it “regrets” the departure of the professor “at the start of his mandate, and in these times of unprecedented crisis where the role of European research is essential”. He pointed out that Mauro Ferrari himself had just undergone a vote of no confidence from the rest of the scientific council of the CER.
Originally from Italy, Professor Mauro Ferrari has spent his career primarily in the United States in multiple fields of research. He is considered a pioneer in nanomedicine.
The professor will only have spent three months in office – his term began on January 1. In his letter, he said that the strategy he had developed to support research in the face of the current pandemic was rejected by the scientific council of the ERC. “I was clearly disappointed, and deeply disturbed, by this unanimous rejection”, he wrote in his mail. According to him, the rejection of his strategy was justified by the fact that the mission of the ERC is to support projects without giving directives on the objectives or the areas of research.
He then explained that he had had the opportunity to work directly with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, but that the fruit of his reflections had been “nullified” by the various administrative levels.
Blow for blow
The European Research Council published a few hours after Mauro Ferrari’s announcement a press release very critical of its former president, stating that the 19 members of the agency’s scientific council had unanimously asked for his resignation in a votes on March 27.
“We regret the statement made by Professor Ferrari, who is at best economical with the truth,” said the press release, signed by the scientific council of the CER.
Created in 2007, the European Research Council has a budget of 13 billion euros for the period 2014-2020. (Belga)
–
