Michel Mouskhely and the idea of the European Union
After the end of the Second World War, the activities of those who wanted to see a united Europe intensified in European universities and academic circles. The devastating consequences of the two world wars had led to a consensus on the need to integrate European countries, as a prerequisite for lasting peace on the European continent.
Michel Mouskhely was one of the leading voices of the French academic establishment in this regard. He founded the Interuniversity Federalist Union. Similar organizations were created in Italy (Movimento Federalista Europeo), Germany (Europa-Union Deutschland), and other European countries. Michel Mouskhely, together with Professor Gaston Stefani, drafted the Federal Constitution of Europe. In this movement for European unity, he stood side by side with such founders of the European Union as Altiero Spinelli and Alexandre Marc. Mouskhely’s work, L’Europe face au fédéralisme (Europe Facing Federalism), published in 1949, occupied an important place among the scholarly works on European integration published after the Second World War.
Michel Mouskhely (Mikheil Muskhelishvili), Professor of Law at the University of Strasbourg and founder of the Center for Soviet and Eastern European Studies at the same university, was born in Tbilisi in 1903. In 1921, when the Russian army occupied Georgia, he was studying in Europe and was never able to return home.
