EUROPEAN STUDIES ON EXTERNAL COSTS OF TRANSPORT

The author presents the essential research results of external costs in transport for 17 European countries (15 EU countries, Switzerland and Norway) with suggested measures of their internationalization. It has been established that external costs at the level of mentioned countries amounted to 650 billion EUR in 2000, or 7,3% of the gross domestic product, what is respectable for national economies (the study published in 2004). The previous results with the same methodology were published in preliminary study based on data for 1995 (published in 2000). The study based on data for 1991, due to differ-ences in the kinds of external costs, gives also different result –their share of 4,6% in GDP (published in 1994). The variations of results within the cited countries exist. All research studies on external effects, or costs, were made by the consulting fi rm “Infras” from Zürich and the Institute for Economic Policy and Economic Researches of the Karlsruhe University.