Originally Posted by
Beamr
a priori he could. But if both the parliament and government decides in favour of joining NATO, it would be highly unlikely that the president would then refuse to sign the document.
The reason for the process is that the president is the highest authority in foreign policy, and joining or not joining a military alliance is a very strong foreign policy statement. Therefore his name needs to be in the application.
But the decision to apply for the membership needs to come from the parliament, namely the majority of parliament needs to support the membership. Then it goes to the government which then presents it to the president, which makes decisions in co-operation with the government.
Parliamentary democracy at its finest.
This isn't really any different from our own monarch having to give the final approval to anything passed by parliament, in practice, it's unlikely to happen, but it's there as a safeguard I guess.