With decision 223/2025, the Three-Member Court of Appeal of the Aegean finally ruled on the three lawsuits filed by companies of the ONEX group against the Environmental Quality Observatory of Syros (EQOS) and our members Stratos Zolotas and Alexandros Bistis, essentially ratifying the first-instance decision 42/2022 of the Syros Multi-Member Court of First Instance. With these lawsuits, the companies claimed financial compensation totaling three million (3,000,000.00) euros, considering that the Observatory’s posts and interviews with our members damaged their reputation and credibility, causing them material damage and moral harm.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the first lawsuit in its entirety. As regards the second and third actions, it ruled that the statements made in the interviews of our members do not affect the reputation and credibility of the two companies, except for one statement (more precisely, a reasoning which the decision itself derived from the evaluation of the interviews) that ‘the authorities are silent because of the sponsorships they receive from the ONEX companies’.
However, we have never attributed to companies the purpose of buying the favor of the authorities through sponsorships. Our criticism was — and remains — focused on the public authorities, which did not exercise their responsibilities as they should, and on the local media, which did not meet their obligation to provide objective and impartial information.
Following the decision of the Court of Appeal, we await the due responses from the competent authorities, the Ministry of Environment, the South Aegean Region, the Municipality of Syros – Ermoupolis and the Port Authority of Syros.
For all three lawsuits, the Court of Appeal ruled that “the plaintiffs should not be awarded compensation for moral damages, because no material damage was proven.” ONEX’s expectations “that the competent Court of Appeal would resolve the many legal and factual issues left pending by the first-instance decision” remained unjustified.
This decision constitutes yet another strong justification for the action of the Observatory and our members. The Observatory and its members will continue to intervene publicly and express, with responsible and documented reason, their opinion on what constitutes a threat to the environment and public health on our island. And no lawsuit can shake this commitment of ours. Because we know that, “as long as there are land and seeds, there is the potential for an oak tree”
The Environmental Quality Observatory of Syros expresses its gratitude to all the hundreds of individuals and organizations that stood by our side and strengthened our voice, and pledges to continue 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 space and to exercise social control over what concerns our lives.
20.03.2026
The Board of Directors
