“EU - Ukraine Action Plan” [1] developed by the European Commission in the framework of European Neighbourhood Policy sets out a number of measures for conducting economic and social reforms.

Among these measures, which are all of great importance, there are steps provided for creating necessary conditions for good environmental governance, rational use of natural resources in accordance with the commitments of Johannesburg Summit [2].

The Action Plan (para.60-62) stated also the main objectives for this line of reforms:

completion of administrative structures and procedures to ensure strategic planning of environment issues and co-ordination between relevant actors;

integration of environmental considerations into policies of key sectors, particularly industry, energy, transport, regional development and agriculture;

establish procedures for the public participation in administrative decision-making, access to environmental information, including implementation of Aarhus Convention [3].

The current state of Ukrainian nation building is characterised by intensive search for the most optimal model for regional administration, including regional planning. Analysis of the main problems of local and regional development in Ukraine and their comparison with similar tendencies in European countries confirms that the absence of contemporary state regional policy is the most the most topical and critical issue. Such policy implies priority of the holistic territorial approaches over departmental and sectoral, optimisation of the relations between the centre and regions, taking into consideration the European regional development trends [4].

Providing the balance and harmonisation of regional interests with national is a necessary condition for effective functioning of the State in the context of sustainable development. The current agenda is the improvement of regional planning practice as a mechanism for elaboration of regional development strategies aimed at systematic realisation of a region's potential, integrated solution of economic, social and environmental problems of a territory, combining the efforts of different administration branches (executive authorities, local self-government institutions, public organisations etc.) in regional development.

The administrative reforms conducted in Ukraine include transformation of regional administration. The changes include above all [5]:

providing for strategic orientated administration, aimed at sustainable development - decentralisation of strategic regional development planning, programme-oriented approach, implementing procedures for strategic assessment of decisions, co-ordination between relevant actors;

establishing principles for sustainable development of regions - strategies of regional development must systematically integrate different types of problems - economic, social, environmental and resource-saving; pro-active environmental protection;

democratisation of decision-making procedures - public participation in discussing strategic alternatives of development (policies, plans and programmes).

Conceptual re-orientation should appear in elaboration of regional development trends, which would consider environmental interests and established environmental goals above all, it should become the main task of regional planning process.

The “proactive environmental protection” will definitely become of great importance. The idea of saving natural resources is forming the field for planning manoeuvres.

It is worth to mention that regional development strategy consists of three elements - policy, plans and programmes, which are interrelated. Policy serves as a basis for development of plans; plans in turn set a framework for programmes. Realisation of programmes results in specific projects. Such linkage is called “tiering” (see Fig.1).

administrative reform strategic environmental assessment

Experience and information gained from realisation of projects could, and should, have influence upon subsequent decisions at strategic levels.

Fig.1. Linkage between different tiers of regional administration

The selected approach is inherent to a modern European understanding of the concept of regional policy and is important for definition of principles for reformation of regional planning as a mechanism for specification of a regional policy [6]. When considering the questions of regional planning it is necessary to specify which administration level is meant - state (national), regional or municipal, as on every level the regional planning has its own purpose, functions, subjects, methods etc. All levels of regional development planning are linked and affect each other (see Fig.2).

Harmonisation of the Ukrainian regional administration practice with EU principles requires first of all the clear delimitation of functions, responsibility and coherence in activities between different planning levels, use of a programme approach to the development of regions instead of the project one, creation of a partnership and cooperation mechanism for different social sectors, focused efforts of a local self-government, organised public, administration elite and businesses, introduction of a standard statistic system for monitoring of a regional development, and also of the principles of regional planning need to gain legislative support.

Aims, objectives and methods of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) are accordant with conducted administrative reforms.

In all EU member States SEA has become mandatory since implementation of the Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmers on the environment. SEA can be defined as a systematic process of evaluating the environmental consequences of strategic decisions - policies, plans and programmes, which allows to consider this consequences in the earliest stage of decision-making process on par with economic and social aspects [7, 8].

Fig.2. Linkage between levels of regional planning

In 2003 Ukraine signed Kiev SEA Protocol [9]. At present all plans, programmes and policies developed in Ukraine, which can have significant impact on environment are subject to SEA.

The application of SEA should rely on four fundamental theses aimed at development of sustainable environmental management. The intensive study of new schemes for using natural resources or its reasoned limitation serves as a basis for them. Secondly, it is necessary to use the existent in a region environmental quality as an important factor, which determines recreational development of the territory. In the third place, there is a very important task for recreation programmes - to repair damage done to environment of a region. Fourthly, the differentiated development of the decentralised spatial structure and structure of settlements should contribute to prevention of environmental pressure and development of recreation resources.

Let us review the main reasons, which determine necessity of implementing SEA into procedures of regional planning [10]:

SEA is an:

instrument for rational and appropriate decision-making in the view of ensuring and providing for sustainable regional development;

instrument of preventing significant impact of regional policies, plans and programmes (PPPs) on environment (on local, trans-boundary and global scale).

SEA provides for:

complex integration of economic, social and environmental factors in developing regional PPPs;

identification on earlier stages of significant environmental impacts of proposed PPPs, including their cumulative impact;

participation and consultations with interested parties regarding elaboration of regional development strategies.

SEA allows to:

improve relevance and interactivity of decisions made by regional administration;

systematically analyse, evaluate and select best alternatives for PPPs;

improve other types of environmental assessment (i. e. EIA);

use results of SEA for future decision-making, also on other levels of administration.

Implementation of SEA in Ukraine, including level of regional planning, requires first its legal regulation:

legal definition of concepts and terminology of SEA, its place and role in the system of environmental assessment, correlation and characteristics of different levels of environmental assessment;

legal regulation of SEA procedures - formalisation of its tasks, objectives, organisational forms, subjects, objects, methods, documentation and other formalities;

development of adapted methodology for SEA of PPPs on different administration levels - national, regional, local (according to Ukrainian planning procedures).

New conceptual orientation will require a number of instrumental innovations. Regional planning should become programme-oriented and polyvariant. Assessment of plans (here is meant the selection of development alternative) requires introduction of evacuation criteria, which will allow to choose one or another alternative. Such criteria become more and more important in the view of environmental component integrated into spatial planning system. It is necessary to establish legally a new decision-making instrument - strategic environmental assessment of all policies, plans and programmes, which are considered to have high ecological risk.

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