Page 9 - EPLO ACTIVITY REPORT 2023

Regional Branch in South Caucasus, Georgia

Research and Education

- In March 2023, the Branch released a comprehensive research paper: “Evolution of the Supranationalism of the
European Union” based on “L’Europe face au fédéralisme” by a French scholar and
politician of Georgian origin Michel Mouskhely (Mikheil Muskhelishvili; 1903-1964). The
work of Michel Mouskhely which was published back in 1949 offers unique ideas for legal
and institutional set-ups for the future Union using elements of the classic Federalism.

The presentation of the research took place at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.

- In 2022-2023 the Branch successfully continued its
“Scholarship program” for the Georgian civil service
representatives. 23 officials from the Parliament of
Georgia, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of
Education and Science of Georgia, the Government of the Abkhazian
Autonomous Republic and Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University were
enrolled in order to earn Master´s degrees in European Law and European
Governance of the EPLO.

- The Branch created a set of “Awareness Raising Program” for Georgian civil
servants. The first such program was offered to the apparatus of the Government
of the Abkhazian Autonomous Republic in 2022. In June 2023, 26 Georgian civil
servants of the same institution enrolled for the second cycle of the program: “EU Enlargement, EU membership
criteria, EU accession trajectory, stages, legal and administrative aspects”.

Two other similar programs, namely: “The EU Law-making and EU legal system” and “EU regional policies toward
its European neighborhood after the 2004 enlargement”, have been created by the Branch and are addressed to
other state institutions, as well as local professional and social groups.

- In 2022 the Branch drafted a new awareness-raising Program for secondary school students - “Bring Europe into
Your Classroom”. Currently, the Branch is working with the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia for
introducing such program in Georgian public schools.

Strengthening the European Values and Principles

- The Branch was quite active in disseminating a high-professional and
competent information about the European Union, European Law and
inter-institutional relations, and various European policies. To this end, the
Branch established fruitful partnership with the EU-NATO information
center of the MFA of Georgia.
- In May 2023, the two organizations launched their first Intensive
Interactive Awareness Raising Program for civil servants in regional
municipalities. The project “EU’s unique Institutional and administrative
arrangement, EU accession criteria, legal aspects of the EU accession,
trajectory and stages” offered interactive lecturing session, practical
simulation exercises and tests. Currently, the partner organizations work
on a more comprehensive project in order to extend the successful pilot-
project to various regions of Georgia.
On 20 March 2023, the Branch, in pursuing its objectives, actively worked
with the local and international mass-media. To this end, the Euronews-
Georgia interview with the Director of the Branch Amb. Ioseb
Nanobashvili was released. Comments by the Georgian public broadcaster
TV shows have to be mentioned as well.

9 | P a g e