COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 18, 1993 (UPI) - In a vote that could reinvigorate plans to turn Europe into an integrated economic colossus, Danes voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to approve the Maastricht treaty on European union that they rejected a year ago.
With 99.1 percent of the ballots counted, returns showed 56.8 percent voted to ratify the pact and 43.2 percent voted to reject it.
Support for the treaty, which would create a common European currency as well as joint foreign and defense policies for the 12 members of the European Community, has stabilized in recent weeks after gradually declining.
Warm and sunny weather throughout the day brought a high turnout from a polarized electorate. A preliminary count showed 86.2 of eligible voters cast a ballot, the second highest rate ever in Denmark.
In June 1992 Danes voted 50.7 percent to 49.3 percent against the treaty, committing it to temporary limbo under the rules of the EC Treaty of Rome, which require all EC member nations to agree on any change to the EC's founding constitution.
Copenhagen then extracted modifications at the EC summit in Edinburgh, Scotland, in December to placate opponents. These ''opt-outs'' permit Denmark to reject the single currency, common defense policies, supranational legal cooperation and ''European citizenship.''
Other EC nations agreed reluctantly to the terms of the Edinburgh treaty, realizing that without the exemptions Denmark would be effectively squeezed out of the EC and that the spectacle of sidelining one of the smallest member states could provoke a backlash across Europe that would doom integration.
The treaty tightens the economic ties between the 340 million citizens of the EC with a single currency, due in 1999 at latest, but analysts say political integration will not soon lead to a more decisive union able to take international initiatives to solve problems like the Balkan war.
Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen welcomed the vote. ''We should be first of all pleased that Denmark has come through this very, very important event,'' he said, but emphasized the need to focus now on giving a boost to the economies of Denmark and Europe, which are stuck in a tenacious recession.
Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen said the approval will bring Denmark more ''authority'' in the EC. ''With greater power we can affect the direction of Europe,'' he said. ''From that point of view, it is a wise decision.''
The campaign for the second referendum was dominated by issues of economics and democracy.
Many who voted in favor of the treaty said they had done so out of fear that rejection would have led to losses of jobs, a declining economy and marginal influence within the EC. Opponents of the treaty said it diminished Denmark's democratic principles by giving decision- making authority to unelected bureaucrats at EC headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Although the race was tight, only one of the eight parties represented in the Folketing, Denmark's parliament, urged voters to reject the treaty.
Approval by the voters brings automatic ratification, though the pact must be signed by Rasmussen and Queen Margrethe II in a purely formal ceremony.
Maastricht, approved by the European Council in December 1991, has been ratified by 10 nations, and awaits the approval of Denmark and Britain. It faces legal challenges in Germany's Constitutional Court.
Not all EC countries have put Maastricht before their voters, but Paragraph 20 of Denmark's constitution obliges the government to get consent in a popular plebiscite before ratifying a treaty that restricts national sovereignty. The Folketing approved the Maastricht treaty in April.
Rejection would have sunk the Maastricht treaty, plunged the EC into deep confusion and seriously delayed or dashed hopes of European integration.
Danish television stations reported in preliminary surveys based on telephone interviews that a clear majority had approved the treaty in a long-awaited referendum that has drawn massive attention around Europe.
Tine Maria Toft, who voted yes, said as she left a polling station in the capital she was confident the treaty would be passed. ''I think union is a good idea -- not just the economic side, but politically as well,'' she said. ''Denmark will have a greater say in Europe if we vote yes.''
Anne Sofie Arctander Plum, who had just voted against the treaty, declared, ''I don't believe in the EC at all, and I certainly don't believe in union. The EC is far too big a project and could submerge Denmark. I think we would do better to work together with our fellow Scandinavian countries.''
The treaty aims to tighten the ties among EC states. It calls for economic and monetary union, including a single currency; common foreign and defense policies; ''European citizenship''; a cohesion fund to transfer wealth from richer to poorer member states; increased cooperation on judicial, immigration and police matters, and a common policy on workers' rights.
Major EC initiatives were put on hold for the last year as ''Euro- skeptics'' in the 12 EC member states took up the cry against the move toward centralization and toward accumulating power in the hands of unelected officials. Since last year's Danish rejection of Maastricht, French and Irish voters have narrowly approved the treaty.
If the treaty is ratified by the 12, the future of the Union will be decided in 1996 when the EC undertakes a major constitutional review, though few expect it to regain the momentum of the heady late 1980s.
