Government Decree No. 90 of 2009 (IV.26.) laying down rules of prevention and remedy of environmental damage.

Provisions of this Decree shall be applied to surface and underground waters, to geological media, to species and their habitats falling under EU Directive No. 79/409 and EU directive No. 92/43, to protected and intensively protected species, to Natura 2000 areas and to national protected areas. This Decree lays down provisions regarding measures aimed at the prevention of damages to the environment and for the restoration of the environment, response planning, exploration and classification of the environmental damage. The competent authorities are the local water management offices and territorial water management directorates with regard to water pollution, the environmental protection and nature conservation inspectorates and national park directorates for what regard damages caused to the environment and nature.
To enforce liability effectively, the Decree incorporates the "polluter pays" principle alongside strict procedural steps for risk mitigation and environmental cleanup. Operators carrying out potentially hazardous activities are subject to strict liability and are required to prepare operational emergency management plans (üzemi kárelhárítási terv). When an imminent threat or actual damage occurs, the responsible party must immediately notify the competent authority, take urgent containment measures, and initiate detailed exploratory surveys (tényfeltárás). If the operator fails to act, the authority is legally empowered to order mandatory remediation or perform the necessary interventions directly at the operator's expense.
Furthermore, the Decree structures environmental restoration into three distinct tiers: primary, complementary, and compensatory remediation. Primary remediation aims to restore damaged natural resources—such as surface waters, groundwater, or biological habitats—directly to their baseline condition. Where complete primary restoration is unfeasible, complementary remediation measures must be executed at alternative locations to balance the ecological deficit. Finally, compensatory remediation addresses temporary losses of ecosystem services suffered during the recovery period, ensuring complete structural and functional environmental recovery across protected natural areas and Natura 2000 networks.