The European Union recognizes the growing role of cities as drivers of development. The Urban Agenda for the European Union (EU) is an initiative of the EU that seeks to achieve greater involvement of European cities and urban areas in managing development and implementation of the urban policy. The aim of this work is to show, the justification of a stronger focus on urban development in the EU (which is also recognized today by new instruments, initiatives that are directed towards European urban areas), and then to explain in more detail the role of the new EU initiative, the mentioned Agenda, as well as to analyse Agenda's topics. For a more detailed analysis, the area of air quality was selected, with a brief overview for the area of urban poverty. After presenting the main features of urban development, the importance of cities as drivers of economic development and the challenges that can be seen in the cities, this workpresents urban policy, EU guidelines for the urban development, before elaborating on the Agenda. This thesis presents the Agenda systematically, from the concept, need and establishment, the most important aims, thematic areas and instruments for financing the implementation, to the elaboration of thework program and analyses the implementation of the selected examples. The analysis and comparison presented in this final thesis resulted with recommendations, applied also to the example of the Croatian city, Bakar. It is proven that EU initiatives focused on urban development offer numerous opportunities to improve the quality of life in European cities, which is also planned to achieve with partnerships and connecting a number of stakeholders dealing with urban development issues, not only through direct financing.Thereby different opportunities for proactive approachin using new initiatives are opened for Croatian cities, which can contribute to being closer to achieve long-term sustainable development and to realize their potential.