What politician tried to introduce what and where? Europe is not one single legislative body. This stuff differs from country to country inside the EU, but AFAIK every country has some sort of regulations as to what can be built where and how. The laws might differ in their specifics, but they'll serve the same general purpose tailored to their own cultural and geographical needs. It's not zoning itself that leads to US-style suburban hellscapes, it's how they are defined and applied. European countries simply choose not to zone their land like the US does.

Anyway, here's a sample of German zoning regulations for you as an example. It names industrial zones, agricultural zones, mixed residential zones, exclusive residential zones, etc. Again, they won't work the same as the US laws, but they're zoning regulations. You'll see the word "Gebiet" a lot in there, which literally translates to "zone".

Here's a map of Vienna's zones.