The EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency said in a report published on 8 April that “government responses to stop the virus particularly affect the rights of already vulnerable or at-risk people, such as the elderly, children, people with disabilities, Roma or refugees”.

However, because of the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a Commission spokesperson told EURACTIV, “the Commission is currently reviewing its work programme for 2020”. The official added that “a new programme will be published in the coming weeks.”

The draft copy reveals that Commission officials are exploring the possibility of delaying a number of initiatives related to LGBTI, Roma and gender rights.

According to the explanatory note to the document, the Commission plans to focus “in first instance on those initiatives that will directly and meaningfully contribute to overcoming the crisis,” while postponing others “until normal business can resume later in 2020.”

Additionally, the note proposes to defer several initiatives to 2021 considering the “limited absorption capacity of co-legislators to deal with legislative files, as well as the capacity of our services to deliver also on the urgent COIVD-19 related measures.”

Link: https://www.euractiv.com/section/eu-priorities-2020/news/eu-to-delay-human-and-minority-rights-initiatives-due-to-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR3Q2BYu5AvMHRprv_Ioztdnj5QbV9R3rnxyy1FWqsXChq3uXq6sRKaBEgo

Scores of Roma people protested in Bulgaria’s capital Sofia on Friday over feared job losses due to a stricter application of a coronavirus lockdown in their main neighbourhoods in efforts to halt the spread of the viral pandemic.

Since Thursday residents of the Fakulteta and Filipovtsi neighbourhoods have been subject to checkpoint controls because of concerns about them being at high risk of infection after 10 cases were reported in the impoverished area.

Bulgaria has registered over 100 new COVID-19 cases since Tuesday, taking the total number to 846 including 41 deaths. More than half of the confirmed infections are in Sofia.

People apart from those in Roma neighbourhoods can move freely within the capital while observing social distancing but cannot leave it as part of a broader travel lockdown.

Mayor Yordanka Fandukova denied that measures to restrict movement in Roma neighbourhoods amounted to discrimination, saying they were about stemming contagion and saving lives of residents there.

Link: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-bulgaria-roma/bulgarias-roma-fear-coronavirus-lockdowns-leave-them-with-no-means-to-live-idUKKBN21Z35P?fbclid=IwAR3YlfERiKfb600DQrL262ZViZQbo8vBDMhSaqCUo5maGtfETLeWJMruj84