Assessment of the current state of the EU inland shipping development and its perspectives from the policy and transport market point of view

The main subject of this research was to identify recent basic trends in the development of inland waterway transport in the EU as well as to evaluate this from both EU transport policy objectives and logistics markets’ requirements. For this purpose, classical statistical and economic analysis methods as well as the documentation research method were used. The basic threats and barriers to the development of inland waterway transport are indicated, as well as various actions necessary to limit or eliminate them. An attempt was also made to assess the opportunities and prospects for the development of this transport mode in the next decade in the context of the development of the broader EU transport market. The main objective of this research was to perform a market assessment of the development prospects of this mode of transport in the era of dynamic developing logistic customer service standards, as well as progressive globalization and the 4th industrial revolution (digitalization). In this respect, political versus market-oriented scenarios of the development of EU inland shipping were analyzed and evaluated. The conclusions relate to the ongoing and upcoming modal shift on the EU transport market as well as regulatory measures undertaken by the EU.