SUMMARY
Inland shipping is one of the most environmentally friendly transport modes. Currently it amounts to 6.3% of the whole cargo transport of the EU-28. The low share of transport with the use of inland waterways in the European Union is, among others, the result of many bottlenecks in the inland waterways system. Investments which would improve the condition of the water routes of international significance are necessary to increase the significance of inland shipping, thus eliminating the infrastructural barriers which diminish the development of inland shipping. The goal of the article is to present the relations between the economisation of the inland waterways and the volume of goods transported on inland waterways.