Over a long period, since the 60s of the past century, legal provisions, which have regulated problems regarding physical planning, have been frequently modified. These frequent changes in legal provisions primarily have not simplified the definition of the problem but rather to the contrary. The aim of this paper was to determine structure and changes of legal provisions regarding the plans of physical planning in the Republic of Croatia and to compare them with the structure of plans of physical planning in the European Union. On the basis of a comparative method, the main differences have been determined to be in the area of regulations, which define plans of physical planning in Croatia and EU. Comparing the legal provisions, it has been noted that in the Republic of Croatia the terminology of plans regulating physical planning is multiplying, which causes confusion in practical application, in other words, they become an end in themselves. The result of this work is the definition of the range of single plans according to the existing structure of plans of physical planning in the European Union. In conclusion of the paper, focus has been placed on the importance of grouping in three levels the plans which regulate this problem area.
