Abstract
The necessity of planned urban development might seem self-evident, but in reality is far from being so – particularly in former socialist countries turned into EU Member States such as Hungary or Romania. In Hungary, for instance, prior to EU accession, there was no generally accepted public opinion supporting the necessity of a planned urban development controlled by the public sector. However, the substantial resources – that in Hungary, e.g., involve impressive amounts – placed at the disposal of urban development within the framework of European Union development policy are not sufficient by themselves to answer the question as to why planned urban development is truly necessary. Based on the most recent research results on the topic and some relevant earlier Hungarian and foreign studies lesser-known in Central Europe, the present paper seeks to answer this question. It analyses the international literature as well as certain Western European, Hungarian, and Romanian cases in order to define the general objectives of urban planning and uses them as a starting-point to demonstrate the necessity of planned urban development.