Nowadays the expression: Sustainable Development has become a common term, however it is interpreted in different ways depending on whom you talk to and thus causes a lot of confusion. The idea is the focus of many contemporary discussions, but it generates a great amount of talk than it been successfully implemented. One of the aims of this thesis is to examine the reasons for the different sustainable development approaches. Many Municipalities have introduced into their lives and systems the rules of sustainability through different international, national and European Union programmes. There are many successful practices from Sweden; Hungary is quite lagging behind in the implementation of this concept. The example of the Swedish city, V?xj? shows that a lot can be changed at the local level. The Hungarian town, Si?fok has a big opportunity with Managing Urban Europe-25 project to implement sustainable city planning. With the guidelines of this programme together with the experience of the Swedish city, the thesis aims to emphasise the "think globally act locally" approach to implementing the sustainable development concept much more easily than any world summits will do.