Head of EU's top science body resigns over frustration in coronavirus response
Updated 21:08, 08-Apr-2020
CGTN

Mauro Ferrari, president of European Union's (EU) top science organization, the European Research Council (ERC), has resigned in frustration to the EU's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Professor Ferrari started a four-year term as ERC's leader on January 1, and submitted his resignation to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday afternoon. 

Ferrari said in a statement to the Financial Times that he proposed setting up a special ERC program to combat COVID-19, but the ERC Scientific Council, its governing body, unanimously rejected the idea.

"I have seen enough of both the governance of science, and the political operations at the European Union. I have lost faith in the system itself," Ferrari wrote.