PARIS, Sept. 21, 1992 (UPI) - The narrowness of the French vote in favor of the Maastricht Treaty will make it more difficult to ratify the pact in Germany and Britain and raises serious doubts that the document can be implemented in its current form, analysts said Monday.
Final results issued by the Interior Ministry at midday Monday gave the ''yes'' vote 51.05 percent to 48.95 percent for the ''no.'' The ministry said 70 percent of registered voters had cast ballots.
The election results showed that the France that voted ''yes'' is richer, better educated, more urbanized and younger than the France that voted ''no.'' The Paris region, for example, voted 62.5 percent in favor of the treaty, while 60.2 percent of Lyon's residents cast ''yes'' votes.
In contrast, the France that voted against Maastricht tended to be rural, poorer, and less well educated. Sixty-percent of French farmers, who are afraid that Maastricht will lead to a cut in agricultural subsidies, voted against the treaty.
While French approval kept Maastricht alive and prevented an immediate financial and political crisis within the 12-member European Community, the close vote was a sharp reminder that millions of Europeans across the continent do not agree with the Europe envisioned by their leaders.
French politicians who supported the treaty appeared to have learned the lessons of the close vote. France, which in the past has opposed giving the European a larger role, now appears willing to consider extending its powers as a way of increasing in an effort to democratic European institutions, government officials said Monday.
Officials in Paris said French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl will meet in Paris Tuesday to discuss the implications of the French ''yes'' vote and exchange perspectives on European unity.
Both leaders have made statements following the referendum emphasizing the need to democratize European institutions, and officials said Paris and Bonn could undertake an initiative on the issue as well as on the question of enlarging the Community.
A number of countries, including Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Finland, are knocking at the EC's door. Britain, which currently holds the rotating EC presidency, has been in favor of quick enlargement, but now says that the issue must wait until the problem posed by Denmark's rejection of the treaty in a referendum last June can be resolved.
By meeting almost immediately after Sunday's approval of the Maastricht Treaty by French voters, the two leaders also hope to revitalize the French-German alliance that has been the driving force behind the unity move, diplomats said.
Danish Prime Minister Poul Schluter, whose country rejected the treaty in a referendum last June, seized the occasion offered by the narrowness of Sunday's vote to remind other EC leaders that the treaty cannot be applied unless it is unanimously approved by all 12 members.
Schluter said it was ''interesting to observe the strong proportion of opponents to European unity in a country that has been at the head of the construction of Europe.''
The Danish prime minister predicted the treaty will not come into effect on Jan. 1, 1993 as scheduled -- until what he called the Danish issue has been resolved.
Aware of the sticky Danish problem, British Prime Minister John Major, whose country currently holds the rotating EC presidency, called a special summit of EC leaders for early October to try and find a solution. But because Major said he will not submit the treaty to Parliament until the Danish issue is resolved, it now appears virtually impossible that the document can be ratified by the Jan. 1, 1993 date originally set.
Other analysts said that the treaty has in fact been overtaken by events, especially the currency crisis last week that resulted in the withdrawal of the British pound and Italian lira from the European exchange rate mechanism. These analysts say that the single currency envisioned by Maastricht and which was to come into effect by Jan. 1, 1999 at the latest is now likely to be replaced by a single currency in which only four or five countries will take part.
The French vote is also certain to stimulate the anti-European forces in Britain, especially within the ruling Conservative Party, and to increase pressure on Kohl on call a referendum.
While a stronger vote in favor of the ''yes'' would have helped Major, the strength of the 'no' vote will now be utilized by Maastricht opponents to argue in Parliament for the simple withdrawal of Britain from the Community. While they are expected to fail, a clearer ''yes'' vote across the English Channel would have made victory for the prime minister substantially easier.
A poll published Sunday by the London newspaper The Independent said 47 percent of the British people rejected the Maastricht Treaty while only 24 percent approved it.
The strength of the opposition is particularly significant given that Britain was allowed to decide later whether it wants to join the single currency envisioned by Maastricht and is also exempt from the social policy charter attached to the document.
''From now on attention will be focused on London,'' remarked Paddy Ashdown, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party. ''It is our turn now to decide if we want to be an integral part of the new Europe or if we want to be separated from it.''
In Germany the problem is a different one. Kohl, who was reportedly aghast at Mitterrand's decision to hold a referendum, is assured of ratification by the German Parliament. But the Chancellor is going to have to deal with increasing demands that he too put the document before the voters.
But government officials are worried that a referendum would turn on only one issue -- whether or not Germany should agree to give up the Deutschemark in favor of the single currency known as the Ecu. If that were to be the case, the treaty could very well be turned down by voters as giving up the symbol of German prosperity for an unknown currency.
On Monday Kohl said that Sunday's results showed ''that many misunderstandings arose or were intentionally created'' during the campaign. He was referring to the widespread fears in France that the new Europe would be one dominated by Germany. The anti-German tenor of the campaign has led, in the view of some observers, to increased opposition to the treaty among German voters.
