Legal Regulation of Strategic Public Administration in the Field of Environmental Protection (on the Example of the Subjects of the Ural Federal District)

Razova Yuliya Alekseevna Postgraduate Student, Department of Applied Law, MIREA - Russian Technological University 117342, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Obrucheva str., 46 julchik.ivanova@gmail.com

In this article, the author, using content analysis based on the formal legal method, investigated strategic planning documents in the field of environmental protection at the federal level, as well as in the subjects of the Russian Federation located on the territory of the Ural Federal District. Based on the results of their analysis, the author concludes that the existing system of strategic management in the field of environmental protection includes at the federal level the decrees of the President of the Russian Federation on national development goals and development objectives, the Environmental Safety Strategy and the national project "Ecology. At the level of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, it includes strategies for the socio-economic development of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, state programs of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation (in the field of creating a favorable environment) and regional projects in this area.

The author also notes that the period of implementation of state programs in the field of environmental protection differs in different subjects of the Russian Federation, and also differs from the period of implementation of national development goals and socio-economic development strategies of the relevant subjects of the Russian Federation, which requires adjustments for the harmonious development of the strategic management system. Also, according to the author, the fifth paragraph of Article 6 of Federal Law No. 7-FZ of January 10, 2002 requires correction, since it does not correspond to the provision of paragraph 8 of part 1 of Article 44 of Federal Law No. 414-FZ of December 21, 2021, which establishes the authority of the subjects of the Russian Federation to organize and implement regional and inter-municipal programs and projects in the field of environmental protection and environmental safety.

IntroductionThe relevance of the presented research is due to the development of strategic public administration in the context of the inclusion among the national development goals of Russia until 2030 of goals for the preservation of the population, health and well-being of people, as well as to ensure a comfortable and safe environment for life.

The President of Russia has repeatedly stressed that "solving environmental problems is a task for our industry and science, the responsibility of each of us" ^[16]. At the same time, it is of fundamental importance for proper environmental protection to preserve the developed approaches, as well as their comprehensive improvement: at the federal, regional and local levels.

Therefore, in the context of the need to achieve national development goals, the improvement of strategic environmental management mechanisms, the integration of relevant activities at all levels of government ensures a high potential of the state in improving the quality of the environmental situation.

The author in this study has chosen as the subject a set of regional programs and projects in the field of environmental protection adopted in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, which are part of the Ural Federal District. This choice of the author is not accidental and is based on the fact that it is on the territory of the Ural Federal District that a significant adverse impact on the natural environment is recorded. Thus, of the 12 Russian cities included in the federal Clean Air project, 3 cities are located on the territory of the Ural Federal District (Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Tagil, Chelyabinsk). Moreover, other cities within the Ural Federal District are also ecologically problematic territories (for example, Karabash) ^[7].

It is necessary to recognize that the degree of elaboration of the problems of legal protection of the environment is high. Thus, a special place in the domestic legal science is occupied by developments on issues of international legal environmental protection (M. N. Braige ^[3], V. V. Nikolaev ^[15]). It is important to improve management practice in the field of environmental protection is the development of issues of state environmental management at the regional level (I. N. Zhochkina ^[9], N. L. Lisina ^[11], M. A. Vakula ^[6]). In general, the administrative and legal regulation of environmental protection has become increasingly important in recent years, including taking into account the technical regulation of environmental safety issues (E. V. Butova ^[4], D. I. Shakirova ^[18]).

At the same time, in the context of the development of the principle of unity of the system of public power, the issue of coordination of strategic state management of environmental protection requires additional attention. In such conditions, the thesis of M. A. Buchakova that in the sphere under consideration it is necessary to ensure the coherence of the actions of the executive bodies of state power among themselves (horizontal coordination), as well as the optimal distribution of powers between different levels of executive power ^{[5, p. 10]} becomes particularly relevant. It seems that it is in the context of one federal district that the study of horizontal coordination and distribution of power can be very representative. These circumstances determine the expediency of developing the proposed topic.

The purpose of the study is to determine the system of strategic public administration in the field of environmental protection and to identify the problems of its legal consolidation.

The theoretical significance lies in the author's approach to structuring elements of the system of strategic public administration in the field of environmental protection at the federal and regional levels. The practical significance lies in the formulation of proposals for changing legislation (regarding the uniform wording of the powers of the subjects of the Russian Federation to approve programs and projects in the field of environmental development) and the timing of the implementation of strategic planning documents.

Methodological basis of the study. In order to verify or falsify the thesis on the formation of a unified consistent system of strategic planning in the field of environmental protection, the author, using content analysis based on the formal legal method, investigated strategic planning documents in this area at the federal level, as well as in the subjects of the Russian Federation located on the territory of the Ural Federal District.

Main part and resultsThe elimination of accumulated damage to the environment and the exclusion of potentially harmful factors for it remain currently in demand areas of development of environmental legislation.

Currently, the key directions of state policy in this area are based on the national development goals until 2030, approved by the President of Russia. These include the goals of preserving the population, health and well-being of people, as well as ensuring a comfortable and safe environment for life.

The system of national goals and strategic development objectives for the period up to 2024 is specified in the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 07.05.2018 No. 204. In the context of changing external conditions, this Decree builds a system of national projects that can ensure the solution of the tasks set. In the field of ecology, a national project of the same name has been developed, which, as the goals of implementation, pursues the formation of a system for effective management of production and consumption waste, to ensure a drastic reduction in the level of atmospheric air pollution, improving the quality of drinking water for the population, ecological improvement of water bodies, conservation of biological diversity.

Achieving such targets in the field of environmental protection requires consistent organizational actions from public authorities (creation of a national project management system), financial (identification of sources of financing for relevant activities) and legal (corresponding legislative changes).

It should be noted that legal measures are actively initiated by deputies of the State Duma and the Government. Thus, the legislation in the field of environmental protection periodically undergoes changes taking into account the improvement of the goals of state policy in this area. In particular, Federal Law No. 7-FZ of January 10, 2002 "On Environmental Protection" was amended 3 times in 2018, 3 times in 2019, 4 times in 2020, 4 times in 2021, and 3 times in 2022.

Taking into account all the amendments made, Federal Law No. 7-FZ of January 10, 2002 "On Environmental Protection" becomes the starting point of all management activities in the field of environmental protection aimed at achieving the set national goals, since it establishes the principles of environmental protection, the basics of management in this area, requirements for the implementation of economic activities, issues of economic regulation in this area and other issues.

At the same time, this Federal Law forms the organizational basis for the activities of public administration entities in the field of environmental protection. Taking into account article 72 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, environmental protection and ensuring environmental safety are the subject of joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and its subjects. This circumstance entails the distribution of powers in the field of environmental protection between the Russian Federation and its subjects of the Russian Federation (Chapter II "Fundamentals of Environmental Management" of Federal Law No. 7-FZ of January 10, 2002).

For the implementation of strategic public administration in the field of environmental protection , the specified Federal Law establishes the following powers:

1) the authority of the state authorities of the Russian Federation to develop, approve and ensure the implementation of federal programs in the field of environmental development of the Russian Federation (fourth paragraph of Article 5);

2) the authority of the state authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation to adopt and implement regional programs in the field of environmental protection (fifth paragraph of Article 6).

At the same time, the author sees a legal conflict in terms of the legal consolidation of the above authority. Thus, paragraph 8 of Part 1 of Article 44 of Federal Law No. 414-FZ of December 21, 2021 "On the general principles of the organization of public power in the Subjects of the Russian Federation" refers to the powers of the public authorities of the subject of the Russian Federation on subjects of joint jurisdiction carried out by these bodies independently at the expense of the budget of the subject of the Russian Federation, the solution of issues of organization and implementation regional and inter-municipal programs and projects in the field of environmental protection and environmental safety. The author believes that the wording of Federal Law No. 414-FZ of December 21, 2021 is more appropriate to the existing strategic management system, since:

1) allows you to develop not only programs, but also projects;

2) allows you to specify the activities carried out within a certain set of municipalities (inter-municipal level).

Taking into account the above, the author considers it necessary to make appropriate amendments to Federal Law No. 7-FZ of January 10, 2002 "On Environmental Protection", which will exclude possible contradictions in the system of strategic management of environmental development. It is consistent system management "that is a kind of promising guarantee of the success of the implementation" of environmental policy ^{[14, p. 8]}.

The researchers emphasize that the consistent consolidation of strategic tasks in the field of environmental protection in program documents was an urgent need "to comprehend and define the essence of modern ... planning in ensuring environmental protection" ^{[17, p. 160]}. Today, strategic management in the field of environmental development should be integrated into the existing strategic planning system in the Russian Federation, based on the provisions of Federal Law No. 172-FZ of June 28, 2014 "On Strategic Planning in the Russian Federation", as well as develop the ideas of Federal Law No. 7-FZ of January 10, 2002.

As T. V. Shchukina notes, "the strategic planning system unites and coordinates the actions of its participants through a number of interrelated strategic planning documents, goals, objectives and results of the socio-economic development of the country, a single set of strategic measures at all levels of government" ^[19]. In such conditions, strategic goals and objectives are built into a consistent system that forms a set of program-targeted measures within the framework of state development programs ^[12].

Such a system of strategic planning documents is being built in all existing management areas, and the field of environmental protection management is no exception. In general, the idea of establishing long-term targeted programs in the field of environmental development is fully supported by the scientific community ^[10]. At the same time, such a strategic approach to environmental protection management is also in demand in foreign countries ^[1].

At the same time, in the conditions of a large federal state with different natural and climatic zones and different levels of anthropogenic and technogenic impact on the environment in different territories, the system of strategic management in the field of environmental protection is becoming more complicated. In such conditions, the content of federal strategic planning documents predetermines the entire architectonics of state management of environmental development.

The analysis allows us to conclude that the current system of strategic management in the field of environmental protection is based on the following main documents:

1) at the federal level:

- Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 474 dated 21.07.2020 "On the National Development Goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030";

- Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 07.05.2018 No. 204 "On national goals and strategic objectives of the development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024";

- Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 176 dated 19.04.2017 "On the Strategy of Environmental Safety of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025";

- national project "Ecology" (passport of the national project approved by the Presidium of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Strategic Development and National Projects, Protocol No. 16 dated 12/24/2018);

2) at the level of the subjects of the Russian Federation:

- strategies of socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation (in terms of defining the main goals and objectives in the field of preserving a favorable environment);

- state programs of the subjects of the Russian Federation (in the field of creating a favorable environment);

- regional projects in the field of environmental protection.

We emphasize that the system-forming elements in this area are the dominant federal strategic documents, including the national project "Ecology" ^{[20, p. 45]}. Also, a special place is occupied by the Environmental Safety Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025, approved by Presidential Decree No. 176 dated 04/19/2017. This Strategy determines that the objectives of the state policy in the field of environmental safety are:

- preservation and restoration of the natural environment;

- ensuring the quality of the environment necessary for a favorable human life and sustainable economic development;

- elimination of accumulated environmental damage due to economic and other activities in conditions of increasing economic activity and global climate change.

The researchers note that such goals set at the federal level should correspond to the targets set in other documents, including at the regional level. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to develop the doctrine of environmental law ^{[8, p. 26]}. At the same time, it is fair to remark that strategic planning documents at the regional level should not blindly copy the goals and objectives of the federal management segment, since they should take into account the specifics of territorial socio-economic, ecological, geographical and climatic development ^{[20, p. 45]}.

Below we will consider the elements of the regional level of strategic management in the field of environmental protection in more detail.

1. Consolidation of goals and objectives in the field of preserving a favorable environment in the regional context at the highest level is carried out in the strategies of social and economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation.

The objectives of the environmental policy of the subjects of the Russian Federation located on the territory of the Ural Federal District are presented in Table 1.

Table 1 – Objectives of the environmental policy of the subjects of the Russian Federation located on the territory of the Ural Federal District, fixed in the strategies of socio-economic development

The analysis of the presented information allows us to draw the following main conclusions:

1) the period of implementation of socio-economic development strategies of the regions of the Ural Federal District differs from each other, while in most cases it correlates with the period of implementation of the national development goals of Russia;

2) the set goals are mainly correlated with the targets defined in federal documents and detail them in terms of reliance on the "smart" economy (Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Yugra), environmental development as a factor of economic growth (Chelyabinsk Region).

Taking into account regional climatic, technological and other features determines the formulation of tasks aimed at achieving the above goals. Thus, the Strategy of socio-economic development of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug refers to such specific tasks as reducing the environmental consequences of possible oil and petroleum product spills on the territory of the Autonomous Okrug; in the Tyumen Region – ensuring a balance of disposal and reproduction of forests; in the Sverdlovsk Region – improving the operational reliability of hydraulic structures (including ownerless ones) by bringing them to a safe technical condition.

2. The second most important component of the legal framework of strategic public administration in the field of environmental protection is the development and implementation of state programs in the relevant field. In all the analyzed subjects of the Russian Federation, such programs have been adopted and continue to operate. Information about them is presented in Table 2.

Table 2 – State programs in the field of environmental protection of the subjects of the Russian Federation located on the territory of the Ural Federal District n/a

The analysis of the presented information allows us to draw the following main conclusions:

1) the period of implementation of state programs differs in different subjects of the Russian Federation, and also differs from the period of implementation of national development goals and strategies of socio-economic development of the relevant subjects of the Russian Federation;

2) in most subjects of the Russian Federation, a broad organizational basis for the implementation of relevant programs has been built, including, in addition to the main executor, co-executors (including state and budgetary institutions), which corresponds to the idea of expanding the system of subjects of public administration ^{[19, p. 5]};

3) the implementation of relevant programs in many cases is carried out with the involvement of federal budget funds.

State programs that allow integrating the policy targets, organizational and financial resources necessary for their implementation, are a key element of strategic public administration.

At the same time, the author considers it necessary to unify the period of implementation of relevant programs and bring this period into unity with the period of implementation of national development goals. This will eliminate the problem of inconsistency of strategic planning documents with each other and consolidate the links between them ^[2].

3. Integration of regional project management and the national project "Ecology".

An important element of strategic environmental management is the integration of regional initiatives and tasks of the national project "Ecology". Based on the results of the analysis of the activities of the project offices of the studied regions, the author has prepared Table 3, reflecting the comparison of the directions of implementation of federal and regional projects. When preparing Table 3, materials from the Project Office of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug were used (https://проектныйофис.янао .RF), the Ministry of Ecology of the Chelyabinsk region (https://mineco.gov74.ru/mineco/other/nacproektekologiya.htm ) and other bodies.

Table 3 – The ratio of federal projects within the framework of the national project "Ecology" and regional projects in the relevant areas in the field of environmental protectionFederal project

The analysis of the presented information allows us to draw the following main conclusions:

1) initiatives within the framework of the projects "Infrastructure for waste management of hazard classes I and II", "Preservation of Lake Baikal", "Improvement of the Volga" are not being implemented in the subjects of the Ural Federal District;

2) initiatives within the framework of the projects "Forest conservation" and "Integrated Solid Municipal Waste Management System" are being implemented in all the subjects of the Ural Federal District without exception;

3) in the Kurgan, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions, in addition to federal initiatives, regional Clean Water projects are being implemented.

The implementation of the project approach in this area corresponds to the trends in the development of the public administration system, since the project approach is designed to achieve the tasks set in conditions of limited resources and (or) in a limited time. At the same time, the relevant regional projects are included in the state programs (see, for example: Table "List of regional projects of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Sverdlovsk Region aimed at implementing the national project "Ecology" in the decree of the Government of the Sverdlovsk Region dated 20.06.2019 No. 375-PP). At the same time, regional projects reflect the objectives of the national project "Ecology". This allows us to consider them as a connecting element of federal and regional strategic management in the field of environmental protection.

ConclusionThe author, based on the results of the analysis of the current legislation and management practice, concluded that the existing system of strategic management in the field of environmental protection is based on the following main documents:

1) at the federal level:

- Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation on national development goals and development objectives;

- Environmental safety strategy;

- national project "Ecology";

2) at the level of the subjects of the Russian Federation:

- strategies of socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation;

- state programs of the subjects of the Russian Federation (in the field of favorable environment);

- regional projects in the field of environmental protection.

At the same time, scientific research has repeatedly suggested the need to consolidate a unified state policy in the field of environmental protection and environmental safety in a single strategic document ^[13]. However, the author considers this proposal superfluous, taking into account the requirements of the legislation on strategic planning and the actually established system of strategic management. These strategic planning documents complement each other, make it possible to take into account the natural and climatic and other features of the regions, as well as to separate the activities on certain special issues organizationally (for example, when implementing regional programs).

At the same time, this system is not without flaws. For example, the period of implementation of state programs in the field of environmental protection differs in different subjects of the Russian Federation, and also differs from the period of implementation of national development goals and socio-economic development strategies of the relevant subjects of the Russian Federation, which requires adjustments for the harmonious development of the strategic management system.

The author also identified a legal conflict regarding the legal consolidation of the powers of the subjects of the Russian Federation to adopt and implement regional programs in the field of environmental protection (paragraph five of Article 6 of Federal Law No. 7-FZ of January 10, 2002). This provision contradicts paragraph 8 of Part 1 of Article 44 of Federal Law No. 414-FZ of December 21, 2021, since the latter establishes the authority of the subjects of the Russian Federation to organize and implement regional and inter-municipal programs and projects in the field of environmental protection and environmental safety, which includes a wider range of possible management legal acts for approval.