(Bloomberg) -- Polish President Andrzej Duda said he’s prepared to negotiate with Prime Minister Donald Tusk to overhaul the country’s judiciary, but the new pro-European government must respect his constitutional role in appointing judges. 

“I am always ready to sit down at the table and talk,” Duda said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday. But Tusk must “respect the presidential rights enshrined in the constitution.”  

Poland’s head of state, who was backed by the nationalist government when he took office in 2015, has emerged as the most formidable barrier to Tusk’s pro-European agenda. Any legislation on key reforms has to contend with Duda’s veto power, raising the prospect of difficult negotiations. 

The rivalry at the heart of decision-making in the European Union’s largest eastern economy threatens to derail the government’s bid to dismantle eight years of nationalist rule and return Poland to the EU mainstream. Tusk’s top prize is access to some €60 billion ($65 billion) in suspended EU funding. 

Duda said he reassured the prime minister in a meeting that while he’s a politician with “conservative views,” he has a track record of eschewing “radical views” — and is open to negotiation. 

But he reinforced a red line: exempting judges that he appoints from a verification process sought by EU authorities. Tusk’s government last week introduced legislation to remove the selection of judges from political influence, but a verification mechanism remained open. 

“This is an untouchable point,” Duda said, adding that he made the same argument earlier at Davos in talks with with European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova. Presidentially appointed judges “are untouchable,” he said.  

The judiciary reforms are at the center of a long-running battle over the rule of law in Poland with the Commission, the EU’s executive arm. Overcoming the tensions would give Warsaw access to the funding, which has been suspended over accusations of eroding democratic standards. 

Tusk, a former European Council president, has already had several clashes with Duda in just five weeks in office — over his attempts to reshuffle public media, pass a budget, dismiss a top prosecutor and the dramatic arrest of two fugitive lawmakers who sought shelter at the presidential palace. 

The Polish head of state also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time since the two once-close allies had a public falling out late last year. The two shared an awkward embrace in Davos — and Duda said they’d moved past their differences. 

“I have always highlighted that even in the context of tension, Poland’s attitude toward Ukraine remains unchanged,” Duda told Bloomberg. 

--With assistance from Piotr Bujnicki.

(Updates with Duda comments on verification, meeting with Zelenskiy from second paragraph.)

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