COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED AREAS OF MARITIME ECONOMY OF THE BALTIC SEA REGION COUNTRIES

The degree of differentiation of the BSR countries is enormous when it comes to the degree of development of the national economy. This is due to the fact that after the Second World War the Baltic States as dependent on the Soviet Union and Poland under the influence of the Soviet Union were countries with irrational and ineffective socialist economy. At the end of the 1990s, the process of systemic transformation began in these countries, which although completed did not compensate for differences in the level of economic development of the countries of the Baltic Sea basin. With regard to a part of the national economy - the maritime economy, the issues of differences and delays are not so visible due to the nature of this sector. The maritime economy as the most globalized economic activity, even in socialist countries, was to a certain extent based on market principles. The European Commission, striving to achieve equal living standards in Europe, created development strategies on various levels (regional the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EU - Europe 2020, sectoral the Integrated EU Maritime Policy), whose task is to achieve continuous and sustainable development, inter alia, in sectors of the economy based on sea resources (maritime economy) of the European Union, including the Baltic Sea Basin region. The aim of the research was to compare and determine the level of development of selected types of maritime economic activity in the Baltic Sea Region countries in the period from the publication of the Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP) for the EU (i.e. from 2007) to 2016. In the paper the method of analysis and logical construction was used. An analysis of selected aspects of economic activity within the maritime economy was performed and then a synthesis was carried out. The relationships detected in this process were examined with the use of selected statistical measures.