Particulate pollution was the crucial point on the agenda in the 17 September session of the Hungarian Parliament’s Sustainable Development Committee. Particulate matter, more than 80% of which comes from heating and transport, causes the early death of 16 thousand people in Hungary annually. These figures shocked even Ms Katalin Szili, chairperson of the Committee. In order to reduce the number of illnesses and deaths due to air pollution, the European Union introduced ambient air quality standards which, unfortunately, are exceeded by Hungary more often than allowed. Therefore the European Commission has opened an infringement procedure against Hungary, which can result in a fine as high as several million Euros. Partly to avoid this, the Hungarian government adopted an action programme in 2011 to reduce particle pollution. At the session of the Committee, an implementation report of the programme was presented by Mr. Bálint Dobi, Head of Department at the Ministry of Rural Development, and Mr. András Lukács, President of Clean Air Action Group delivered his opinion on it. The funds allocated by the Ministry for the implementation of the scheme were HUF 72 million (EUR 240,000) last year, and 54 million this year – deemed unacceptably insufficient by the MPs themselves present at the Committee session. The introduction of the electronic road toll, however, is a major step ahead. Nevertheless, Mr. Lukács warned that the resulting problem of the diversion of lorry traffic on toll free or lower toll roads must be solved as the increased traffic in the settlements concerned might lead to an increased number of health problems among residents. As regards the improvement of urban life quality, the introduction of low emissions zones would be one possible way for improvement by way of granting entry only to low pollution vehicles into the most polluted areas of Budapest. The Government has prepared a good study on the feasibility of this method in Hungary, showing that it has been applied effectively in many other European cities for years. Regrettably, the study has not yet been made public.