Different Approaches of Sustainable Development - The Global Level, the EU Guideline And the Success of Local Implementations

Nowadays the expression: Sustainable Development has become acommon term, however it is interpreted in different ways dependingon whom you talk to and thus causes a lot of confusion. The idea isthe focus of many contemporary discussions, but it generates agreat amount of talk than it been successfully implemented. One ofthe aims of this thesis is to examine the reasons for the differentsustainable development approaches. Many Municipalities haveintroduced into their lives and systems the rules of sustainabilitythrough different international, national and European Unionprogrammes. There are many successful practices from Sweden;Hungary is quite lagging behind in the implementation of thisconcept. The example of the Swedish city, Växjö shows that a lotcan be changed at the local level. The Hungarian town, Siófok has abig opportunity with Managing Urban Europe-25 project to implementsustainable city planning. With the guidelines of this programmetogether with the experience of the Swedish city, the thesis aimsto emphasise the "think globally act locally" approach toimplementing the sustainable development concept much more easilythan any world summits will do.