In the majority of well-developed countries the so called strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is currently being applied and opens new possibilities also for the cooperation of the public. Within the framework of communitary law of the European Union the legal incorporation of SEA for plans and programs is being prepared. In Slovakia this requirement is established in the Act of the Parliament of the Slovak Republic No. 127/1994 article 35 on the Environmental Impact Assessment which contains basic requirements for the process of evaluation of selected types of basic developmental policies, territorial-planning documentation and obligatory legal rules from the viewpoint of their presumed impact on the environment. In this article the authors have analyzed the possibilities of public participation in strategic environmental evaluation of the Slovak Republic within the framework of the process of preparation of basic developmental conception proposals and drafts of obligatory legal rules. Experiences from abroad show that in order to ensure that strategically environmental evaluation has a positive effect, one has to be open to remarks from the public, open space for discussions in which anybody who may be interested, either a professional or from the general public, can participate.