Impact of external costs on the implementation of motorways of the sea system

Motorways of the Sea is a name for a concept that aims introduction of new intermodal maritime logistics chains which should lead to structural changes in the organization of transport in the next few years. These chains should be sustainable and commercially more efficient and improve access to the same markets across Europe and relieve Europe’s maritime system. In order to develop this concept in its entirety, as a prerequisite it is necessary to conduct a detailed cost-benefit analysis and analysis of the impact of maritime highways on the environment. One of the most important and indispensable parts of the analysis are external costs. External costs are part of the external effects affecting the decline in total output, and they consist of predominantly maintenance of the natural environment. External costs of transport reflect the cost of those expenses which ocurr as a result of the exploitation of the transport system. These are therefore the costs of traffic accidents, noise, climate changes, air pollution, traffic congestion, environmental degradation, additional costs in urban areas (separation of certain types of traffic and lack/scarcity of space). In this scientific paper external costs and their potential impact on project implementation of maritime highways is analysed. Considering the fact that the paper will not conduct testing on specific maritime routes, given analysis of external costs will be performed only on a theoretical level, i.e. the external costs will be defined as well as their role in road investments