Magdi Toth Nagy - A Green Memory

She leaves us the cause of public participation in environmental decision-making. 

“Good work!” Magdi said at the end. I breathed a sigh of relief! After dozens of events and projects carried out together, I had learned to value her praise. She gave me this particular compliment after a thorough evaluation of a workshop for environmental and climate defenders, which we held together on 29–30 October 2025 as part of the BeLIFE project.  It never crossed my mind that it would be the last.

On 18 July 2026, Magdi Tóth Nagy drew her last breath. Despite her reassurances until the very end, her strong spirit could not overcome her serious illness.

A profound loss

Her loss is a devastating blow to the environmental movement in Central and Eastern Europe. Magdi Tóth is a legendary figure for the first generation of environmentalists who emerged after the democratic changes in our region and across the former Soviet Union. To many of us, she remains a teacher, an ally and an inspiration.

For me, the loss is twice as painful. Because I have also lost a dear friend.

Magdi Tóth was the first person from the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) whom I ever met. It happened in Brussels in 1996, at my first coordination meeting of civil society organisations preparing for the Aarhus Convention. I will never forget her eyes — perceptive and serious, yet lit by a playful spark. She questioned me thoroughly and concluded: “It would be good for us to work together. We shall see.”

When I joined REC years later as editor of its newsletter, she was heading the Public Participation Programme — a field to which she devoted much of her professional life. Magdi’s career was inseparably linked to the advancement of environmental democracy in Europe.

In the photograph: In 2018, Magdi Tóth helped carry the spirit of the Aarhus Convention into the Escazú Agreement in Latin America. Source: https://www.bluelink.net/en/novini/escazu-aarhus-in-the-andes.html

At REC, Magdi Tóth headed the public participation and civil society support programmes and was a leading expert on the implementation of the Aarhus Convention, the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers and related European legislation. She trained and connected environmentalists, lawyers, journalists and public officials in numerous countries — sometimes with my participation as well.

After REC, Magdi continued this mission as Co-Executive Director of the Guta Environmental Law Association and a representative of the European ECO Forum and, later, the Aarhus ECO Forum in the processes of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Our joint work on public participation, access to information and access to justice kept us connected until the very end. As did the protection of people defending the environment and human rights — the purpose of the BeLIFE project, in which Guta and  BlueLink are partners.

Side by side

Within BeLIFE, Magdi was responsible for the training programmes. BlueLink was entrusted with delivering the first of them. Magdi and I were once again working side by side — in person and online — developing the methodology, planning the process and recruiting trainers. She herself came to Sofia for the last time in October as a leading expert. I thought she looked radiant.

But Magdi and I had worked side by side for nearly three decades. That first meeting in Brussels was followed by meetings of the editorial board of Green Horizon — REC’s publication, which I edited between 2001 and 2008; the Environment for Europe ministerial conferences in Kyiv and Belgrade; and training sessions for journalists, environmentalists, municipal officers and civil servants in Georgia, Ukraine, Latvia, Belarus, Kosovo, Russia and Albania. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio+10) in Johannesburg. And Budapest, throughout all those years.

They passed quickly. Magdi was an exceptionally considerate and sensitive person. She knew how to avoid and defuse conflicts with great care. I saw her upset or outraged only by injustices or misguided decisions affecting the mission to which she had devoted her life — strengthening public participation and access to information and justice.

There were times when I myself became upset or frustrated by setbacks in our work. Yet, even as we spoke, I could feel the tremendous wave of positivity and constructive energy coming from Magdi. By the end of the conversation, no trace of the negative emotions remained, and even seemingly impossible tasks began to appear readily achievable.

In the photograph: Magdi Tóth Nagy with the author (left) and leading environmental lawyers Alexander Kodjabashev and Summer Kern (right), during her final visit to Sofia. 

She was meticulous to an extreme, and this guaranteed the high quality of everything she did. At the same time, she was unfailingly cheerful and in good spirits whenever we spoke. I find it difficult to comprehend that the next time I call, she will not answer the phone with her customary bright greeting: “Szia, szia, Pavel!”

Hungarians say szia both when meeting and when parting. I played the guitar and we sang together on many occasions. Magdi loves good songs, and we shall continue singing them in her memory, together with good friends. Her cause is also ours — the cause of everyone who cares about public participation in environmental decision-making. Green is the memory of Magdi Tóth Nagy!

You can read more about BlueLink’s activities within BeLIFE here.

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BlueLink works to protect the environment, strengthen democratic participation, support independent public-interest journalism and defend the rights of civil society activists. Your support helps us continue this work. Find out how you can contribute at BlueLink.net.

This publication was prepared as part of the BeLIFE project, co-funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme. You can view all project publications here.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor CINEA can be held responsible for them.

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