On the afternoon of Thursday 19th September at the Municipal Council Hall of Kythira, the official signing ceremony of the contracts for the concession of 30 acres in Antikythera from the Internal Property Committee to the National Observatory of Athens took place, in the presence of the Presidents of the two institutions, Mr. P. Kominos and Prof. E. Pleionis respectively.

At the event the Deputy Minister of Development Mr. Christos Dimas, was about to participate who, however, was unable to attend due to an emergency.

With the signing of the contracts, a hard work of two years is completed, which started after the proposal of NOA for the creation in Antikythera of the National Observatory of Greece for Climate Change (PANGEA - PANhellenic GEophysical observatory of Antikythera), a scientific infrastructure of European importance, which does not exist in the whole Southeastern Mediterranean.

The specific project, for which final funding is expected from the European Investment Bank (EIB), whose executives attended the ceremony, also contains an important social extension, since in its full development (within 5 years) it will have a permanent scientific, technical and administrative staff, and will be able to accommodate at least 25 people. It will also have a conference center and will obviously be perhaps the most important reason for the opposition of the declining population of Antikythera.

In their statements, both the President of NOA and Professor of the Department of Physics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Prof. E. Pleionis, and the Mayor of Kythera Mr. E. Charchalakis, stressed the enormous scientific, academic and social importance of the project, which currently constitutes a flagship initiative of national policy on geophysical sciences and environmental issues.

The Municipality of Kythera will continue to strongly support this national project that creates new scientific and financial aspects for the Municipality. Among other things the Municipality and NOA are already cooperating on issues of energy transition and autonomy of Kythera and especially Antikythera, where electric power production is one of the most costly in Europe.