French, in a Close Vote, Keep Drive for Europe Unity Alive : Referendum: Outcome viewed as crucial to ending Continent’s financial chaos. Experts warn that French affirmation may not be enough to preserve ambitious plans for economic union.

PARIS —  The 40-year effort to forge a super European state barely survived its biggest popular test Sunday as French voters narrowly approved ratification of the Maastricht Treaty on European economic and political union.

The final unofficial result in France’s referendum, except for overseas territories yet to be counted, showed ratification of the Maastricht Treaty, a blueprint for a federal-style European state with a single European currency, winning with slightly more than half the vote, 50.95% in favor to 49.05% against.

Leaders of most European nations expressed relief over the positive vote, which was viewed as crucial to ending the financial chaos that has rocked the Continent in recent weeks.

Fears that the European unity movement was crumbling had fueled a currency crisis last week. Traders and investors pulled investments from Britain, Italy, Sweden and other economically weak European countries, on the expectation that they would have the most to lose if left to fend for themselves in a divided Europe.

But even though a “no” vote in France would have sunk the Maastricht Treaty outright, experts warned that the French affirmation may not be enough to preserve the pact’s most ambitious plans for economic unity. The currency crisis exposed the sharp disagreements among Germany, Britain, Italy and other key nations about economic policy, interest rates and currency values, and those differences aren’t expected to be ironed out any time soon.

Indeed, the bitter three-month debate over the treaty that preceded the referendum left both the European Community and France divided and shaken by the experience, and the extremely close vote in France was viewed by some as ultimately negative for unity efforts. “France has been cut in half,” said Gaullist politician Charles Pasqua, one of the treaty’s principal opponents.

European finance ministers meeting in Washington on Sunday predicted that France’s approval of the treaty will calm troubled financial markets, but they came no closer to resolving the economic policy differences that helped drive currency markets into turmoil in the past two weeks.

Also in Washington, President Bush told European Community finance ministers at a White House reception that the United States, Europe and Japan should consider a new system for aligning currency values based on a number of economic indicators, including the prices of a marketbasket of gold and other commodities.

Bush did not say how a marketbasket scheme would work. But the idea represents the recycling of a proposal advanced by White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III in 1987 when he was Treasury secretary in the Administration of Ronald Reagan. The idea was not taken up by other countries.

In France, farmers, residents of depressed industrial suburbs and a majority of the members of the mainstream right-wing political parties turned out massively against the treaty. Residents of Paris and the major cities, with the exception of Marseilles, supported the treaty and made the difference in the vote.

In largely middle-class, moderate, right-wing Paris, for example, the treaty won easily with 61% of the vote. However, in the economically depressed inner suburbs of the capital, voters turned out just as strongly against the treaty.

Many working-class people believe implementation of the treaty will lead to a loss of social welfare rights now enjoyed in France.

“We have just lived through one of the most important days in the history of our country,” said President Francois Mitterrand in a television appearance after the vote.

“Imagine the joy of all the other European countries,” said Mitterrand, still looking pale and weak from recent surgery in which it was discovered that he had cancer of the prostate.

Throughout the campaign for the referendum, during which polls showed that support for the treaty dropped from more than 60% to as low as 47% at one point, the country’s political Establishment worried about the loss of face that a rejection would create among France’s European partners.

As successive polls showed how close the vote was likely to be, Mitterrand was criticized in Germany and other countries for submitting the issue to public referendum rather than seeking ratification in Parliament as he had originally intended to do. To many, it was an unnecessary gamble taken by the French president, whom they felt was motivated by domestic political considerations.

Indeed, the French victory was greeted with sighs of relief and tempered applause in most European capitals.

In Brussels, European Commission President Jacques Delors, humbled by the near rejection of the European model, promised more “openness” and public consultations by the European bureaucracy.

Despite the narrow margin, German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel celebrated the victory. “Europe lives,” said Kinkel, “and to me that’s what’s important.”

Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who campaigned vigorously in favor of the treaty, argued that the narrow victory was a reflection of France’s confused internal political situation.

“We should tell our European partners,” Giscard d’Estaing said, “that the French ‘yes’ was bigger than it looks if you consider the internal politics of France with its minority government.”

Certainly, the strong endorsement of the European ideal sought by Mitterrand when he announced the referendum in June never materialized. But neither did the outright rejection of Mitterrand and his ruling Socialist Party that was sought by some opposition forces.

In an election day opinion poll conducted for Le Figaro newspaper and TF1 television network, more than 49% of those surveyed said that Mitterrand should finish his term, which expires in 1995, while 43% felt the French president should resign before parliamentary elections next spring.

Jean-Pierre Chevenement, a maverick Socialist who opposed the treaty, compared the French vote to an automobile passing through a yellow light. “This was not a green light for the Maastricht Treaty,” Chevenement said.

With the crucial Maastricht vote out of the way, French political leaders immediately turned to healing the wounds caused by the vivid debate.

Mitterrand thanked voters for their “intellectual courage” in overcoming partisan interests for the sake of Europe. “There are no winners and no losers in this,” the French president said.

Prime Minister Pierre Beregovoy, who had predicted international monetary chaos if the vote failed, declared on television that “the success of the ‘yes’ was not a victory of one camp over another.” He pledged that the government would take lessons from the concerns expressed by farmers and other treaty opponents during the campaign.

“To everyone without exception I say we are listening to you,” Beregovoy said.

But the wrenching debate and extremely close vote promised to rearrange the French political landscape.

Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac, Mitterrand’s opponent in the 1988 presidential elections, supported the treaty and was a major factor in the referendum’s success. However, the Gaullist Rally for the Republic political party that Chirac heads turned out overwhelmingly against the treaty. According to exit polls, 49% of its members voted “no” while only 26% supported it and 25% abstained.

The new political stars on the French scene are Maastricht opponents Charles Pasqua and Philippe Seguin, both members of the Gaullist party, and Philippe de Villiers, a maverick member of Giscard d’Estaing’s Union for a French Democracy party.

In an exit poll of French presidential preferences for the next election, Pasqua finished a surprising fourth with 14%, behind Giscard d’Estaing with 16%, Chirac with 19% and Socialist former Prime Minister Michel Rocard with 27%. The EC’s Delors did not figure in the poll.

The pressures of the important European vote weighed heavily on the French, a surprising number of whom waited until the last minute to make up their minds. Jean Baptendier, a widowed resident of a middle-class Paris suburb, for example, said ahead of time that she would make up her mind in the shower before she went to vote Sunday morning.

In the end, however, a sufficient number of French felt as did Marie-Gabrielle Hall, 48, a resident in the village of Moreuil in the north of France near Amiens.

Hall said she voted for the treaty because France needs the power of a united Europe to have an impact in today’s world. “If you look at a map and put your thumb on France, you can cover it up,” she said.

Times staff writer Tom Petruno in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

EUROPE RELIEVED: Vote is welcomed by supporters of unity dream. A6

MARKET BOOSTER?: French approval is likely to boost markets, experts say. D1

Treaty Scorecard

Here’s the status of the European union accord in the 12 European Community nations:

* Belgium: Treaty approved in July in the lower house of Parliament. Now goes to the Senate for likely approval in October.

* Britain: A bill to ratify the treaty passed its key legislative stage in May but was put on hold until the fall after Denmark’s rejection of the accord.

* Denmark: Voters narrowly rejected the accord June 2.

* France: Voters narrowly approved accord Sunday.

* Germany: Parliament will open debate in early October. Prospects uncertain. Nation’s 16 states worry about surrendering power to the EC executive agency.

* Greece: Parliament ratified treaty Aug. 1.

* Ireland: Became the first nation to approve the accord June 18.

* Italy: Treaty submitted to Parliament; Senate approved it Thursday. No date set yet for Chamber of Deputies vote.

* Luxembourg: Parliament approved treaty July 2.

* Netherlands: Government submitted treaty to Parliament on June 3.

* Portugal: Treaty due to go to Parliament in October. Approval expected.

* Spain: Parliamentary debate to begin in October, with vote likely in December. Ratification expected.

Source: Associated Press