On Monday, parliamentary leaders from across Europe gathered in the Czech capital to debate Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the European Union’s response in the wider geopolitical context.
Poland's Witek was among the leading speakers in the debate on the war in Ukraine. She appealed to her counterparts for continued support of Ukraine's drive to join the EU and NATO, saying that "stopping Russia's totalitarian drive is a condition to guarantee security" in Europe.
"To stop Russian aggression we need to be actively involved in actions to help overcome the criminal regime in Moscow and also to take steps which will allow Ukraine to join the EU," Witek said.
She added: “We should also consider financial support to help rebuild Ukraine. Our task is also to consider steps to guarantee energy independence in Europe, and we need to be together in these initiatives because this is the only way we can ensure security to our nations."
The Speaker of the Czech lower house, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, told the conference that Ukraine needed "immense support" from its allies in the reconstruction of the country, to eliminate the effects of military operations, including efforts to demine vast areas of the country.
Adamová said that, "to achieve victory over Russia," military support for Ukraine must increase.
"We have to be aware that the war is decided on the battlefield," she said. "That is why we need to ignore the irrational comments that by delivering arms to a country which is defending itself we are adding fuel to the flame. On the contrary, we are helping a state that had been groundlessly attacked."
Adamova added that “those who advocate diplomatic solutions to the conflict should recognise the fact that peace can only be negotiated from the position of power."
On Tuesday, conference participants focused on global cooperation between democracies and also discussed the "dependence of European countries on totalitarian regimes."
Poland's Grodzki told the gathering that Russia's invasion of Ukraine "has highlighted the challenges that Europe faces, challenges which many European countries had ignored believing in positive international cooperation."
Grodzki warned that "some countries perceive the democratic values of the European Union as hostile and actively seek to damage the integrity of the EU, using disinformation and energy dependence as weapons."
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Click on the audio player above to listen to a report by Radio Poland's Agnieszka Bielawska.