President of the European Research Council Professor Mauro Ferrari resigned on Tuesday

  • "I have been extremely disappointed by the European response to Covid-19"
  • He developed a plan for a response …. "The proposal was passed on to different layers of European Commission administration, where I believe it disintegrated upon impact."

More here at the FT

Janez Lenarcic, the EU's crisis management commissioner:

  • member states had initially not offered the help needed by Italy as the death toll there soared
  • "There was an inadequate response to the Italian request for assistance from other EU member states," he told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday, as he unveiled a plan to dispatch doctors and nurses from Romania and Norway to Italy. "But things have changed now."