Decision 223/2025 essentially upheld first-instance ruling 42/2022 of the Syros Multi-Member Court of First Instance. The court of appeal dismissed the first lawsuit in its entirety and found, in the other two cases, that the observatory’s statements had not harmed the companies’ reputations, with the exception of one reference concerning the alleged silence of the authorities because of sponsorships. The observatory clarified that it had never attributed to the companies any intention of buying the authorities’ favour.
The court also ruled that no monetary compensation for moral damage should be awarded, as the companies had failed to prove any material damage.
The observatory said the decision amounted to a strong vindication of its actions and stressed that it would continue to intervene publicly, on a documented basis, on environmental and public health issues.
It also expressed gratitude to ‘the hundreds of individuals and organisations that stood by our side and strengthened our voice’, adding that it remained committed to continuing ‘with the same determination to fight for the protection of the natural environment and public health on our island, as well as for the preservation of our constitutionally guaranteed rights as citizens, the self-evident individual and collective right and duty to think, speak and intervene freely, collectively and individually, in the public sphere and to exercise social oversight over matters that affect our lives’.
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