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The history of environmental policy in Hungary still seems to bear the marks of the Communist past. Till 1989, the environment came under consideration in planning only as a sectorial policy and was seen only in terms of nature conservation. The central government and bureaucracy, in charge of policy-making, were rather unwilling to regulate pollution and environmental hazards. By the late 1980s, environmentalist movements were objecting to this situation and challenging the declining regime. Despite its obvious willingness to break with the Communist past, Hungary has still not fully erased all traces of previous political and institutional practices. Environmental policy is still technocratic and centralized. Official institutions are struggling to apply European environmental standards based on sustainable development and local initiatives precisely because the latter are lacking. The Communist era's main legacy seems to be the lack of democratic participation at the local level in environmental (or other) matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]