Maritime Transport Development in the Global Scale – the Main Chances, Threats and Challenges

International transport is a subject to many regulatory measures worked out by governments, international organisations (e.g. IMO, ILO, EU), regional institutions and public entities. As a result, such regulatory mechanism, which is getting throughout international, strongly affects the real sphere of maritime transport as well as its productivity and efficiency. Maritime transport operators have to apply to many new standards and rules set by international public regulators aimed mainly at improving and enhancing safety and security at sea. It is sometimes very painful process in terms of costs and time but inevitable to survive in the highly competitive environment. The author analyses the nowadays existing regulatory mechanism in maritime transport and tries to evaluate it in terms of its impact on effectiveness of maritime transport processes.