Brussels, 07/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - The first meeting of the ELDR meeting on the "Justice and Home Affairs Network in Brussels", which met on 5 and 6 February, ended with the adoption of a declaration for strengthening European justice and home affairs policy. Liberal MEPs and Liberal members of several national parliaments insisted on the fact that national security concerns must not compromise the principles of democracy, equality and human rights within the EU, any more than anti-terrorist laws should weaken the rights of refugees. They called for the setting in place of an "effective system of citizens' rights, by the accession of new states in 2004". Liberal MEPs request that the citizens from the new member States should benefit from the right to free movement upon accession, "unless there is real justification to apply the 'safeguard' clauses". The spokesperson for the ELDR Group on justice and home affairs issues at the European Parliament, Sarah Ludford, denounced for her part the attitude taken by British and Italian Prime Ministers. She said: "Blair is trying to undermine the Geneva and ECHR Conventions. Berlusconi is making a laughing-stock of Italian justice in his antics over corruption charges. European citizens deserve better than these examples".