ASSESSING THE TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES

. In their previous publication, the authors proposed to assess the transport development of any territory (but mainly the territories of the world’s countries) according to the following three components: transportization level of a territory, transport internationalization level of a territory and quality of transport in a territory. The authors assessed three components of the transport development of a territory each separately, including them in further empirical analysis. In the course of the authors’ empirical research, it became necessary to improve the methodology for assessing the transport development of a territory. The purpose of this study is to develop a single tool for measuring the transport development of a territory – an index – and to test it on the example of the European Union countries. Methods used in the study: monographic method, logical analysis and synthesis of the conceptual essence of the phenomenon ‘transport development of a territory’, index method – a quantitative technique for assessing the transport development of a territory based on the minimum and maximum values. The information base of the study is the data of the Global Competitiveness Report, as well as data from GlobalEconomy.com and the World Factbook for the EU countries. As a result of the study, the authors developed a new Territory Transport Development Index (TTDI), which includes not three, but four components: transportization level of a territory, transport internationalization level of a territory, quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory, efficiency of the transport services in a territory. These four components of the Index developed by the authors differ from the previously proposed components of the transport development of a territory. This difference is determined by the results of study carried out by researchers of the Riga Technical University (RTU), which confirm the importance of transport infrastructure in the use of a territory’s resources, as well as the results of other comparative studies on the transport infrastructure of the EU countries. Thus, the third component (quality of transport in a territory) was divided into two separate components: quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory and efficiency of the transport services in a territory, including additional indicators in the first of them. The authors tested the new Index by assessing the European Union countries and comparing them both in general transport development and separately in its different aspects.


Introduction
The transport sector is a key part of the economy.The economist of Latvijas Banka I. Kasyanovs called this the bloodstream of the economy emphasizing the special role of various indicators of the transport development in a territory's macroeconomic development (Kasjanovs, 2012).Even more so in a global economy where economic possibilities have become more linked to the movement of people and goods, including information and communication technology (Kherbash & Mocan, 2015).Transport infrastructure that is dense and well-connected is often correlated with high levels of economic growth.Multiplying impacts such as increased market access, employment possibilities and more investments occur when transportation networks are well-functioning.Deficient transportation networks can have an economic impact in terms of diminished or lost opportunities and worse quality of life, as well as an impact on the environment (Wang et al., 2018;Meng & Han, 2018;Prus & Sikora, 2021).
In their previous publications (Komarova et al., 2021;Balodis, 2022), the authors proposed to evaluate the transport development of any territory (but mainly the territory of the world's countries) according to three components: transportization level of a territory, transport internationalization level of a territory and quality of transport in a territory.The authors separately assessed each of the three components of the transport development of a territory, including them in the further empirical analysis.In the course of the authors' empirical research (Komarova et al., 2021;Balodis, 2022), there is a need to improve the methodology for assessing the transport development of a territory.Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop a single instrument for measuring the transport development of a territoryan indexand to test it on the example of the European Union countries.
To achieve the purpose of this study, the authors used empirical data from the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum (World Economic Forum, 2019), as well as GlobalEconomy.com (GlobalEconomy.com, 2022a, 2022b, 2022c) and the World Factbook of the Central Intelligence Agency (Central Intelligence Agency, 2021) data on the transport development of the territories of 27 † European Union countries in 2019.The following methods were used to achieve the purpose of the study: monographic method, logical analysis and synthesis of the conceptual essence of the phenomenon 'transport development of a territory', index methoda quantitative technique based on minimum and maximum values (Motoryn et al., 2020;Rybalkin, 2022), which is applicable to the assessment of the transport development of a territory (Ambarwati et al., 2017;Gudmundsson & Regmi, 2017;Walters et al., 2022).

Literature review
In order to achieve the purpose of this study, the authors carried out the literature review on the most significant components of the transport development of a territory, especially in the European Union countries.In the scientific literature, there are some comparative studies on the transport sector of the EU countriesin particular, on the transport infrastructure development, public performance and long-run economic growth in the EU countries (Cigu et al., 2018), on resilient transport infrastructure systems and sustainable economic growth in the EU countries (Gherghina et al., 2018), on the development of intermodal transport in new European Union states (Šakalys & Palšaitis, 2006), as well as on the impact of transport infrastructure on international competitiveness of Europe (Purwanto et al., 2017).
Thus, a review of recent scientific publications on the transport development of a territory allows the authors to conclude that the conceptual essence of the phenomenon 'transport development of a territory' includes several aspects, covering at least such areas as the efficiency and sustainability (including 'green transportation ' -Negrutiu et al., 2020) of transport services, the state of the transport infrastructure, connectivity and density of transport routes.The main trajectory for the transport development of a territory is the sustainable transport (Greene & Wegener, 1997;Steg, 2007;Szczuraszek & Chmielewski, 2018;Mesjasz-Lech & Wlodarczyk, 2022) within the Smart City concept (Bubeliny & Kubina, 2021;Burlacu et al., 2022) and other conceptual frameworks (Lejda et al., 2017;Hermelin & Henriksson, 2022).
In the scientific literature, there are also some attempts to develop a single instrument for measuring the transport development of a territoryan index.For example, the Sustainable Urban Transport Index (SUTI) for cities in the Asia-Pacific region, which reflects urban transport-related SDGs relevant for Asian cities, based on literature review and expert consultations (Gudmundsson & Regmi, 2017).Another metric expressing the aggregate performance of the city's transport systems is the Transport Performance Index (TPI), in which the total cost of transport system (operational and environmental costs) is divided by willingness to pay (WTP) for transport plus the willingness to accept (WTA) the environmental effects on residents (Ambarwati et al., 2017).The most recent index in the area of transport is the Rural Transport Implementation Indexa much-needed tool to support the implementation of connected, autonomous and electric vehicles (CAEVs) in rural areas (Walters et al., 2022).All these indices are applicable to the assessment of the transport development of a specificurban or ruralterritory (or of a specific aspectfor example, an Index of Transport-User Vulnerability (Glensor, 2018)), but not of a country's territory as a whole.
Transport sector not only provides support for economic and social development, but also has an important impact on carbon emissions.Therefore, some researchers have developed special indices to measure the contribution of the transport sector to environmental degradation (Zhou et al., 2022).For example, based on the DPSIR model, the constraint index of the transportation carbon emissions in the Pearl River Delta under Dual carbon' was constructed (Zhou et al., 2022).The study found that there are six levels of constraints.The economic development level, carbon emission scale and the 'Dual carbon' goals are the core factors of the entire system.Developing public transport and intelligent transportation and increasing investment in new energy infrastructure and technology are conducive to the development of transportation system in the Pearl River Delta and the realization of 'double carbon' goals (Zhou et al., 2022).

Theoretical basis and methodology of the research
As described in the Introduction, in their previous publications (Komarova et al., 2021;Balodis, 2022), the authors proposed to evaluate the transport development of any territory (but mainly the territory of the world's countries) according to three components: transportization level of a territory, transport internationalization level of a territory and quality of transport in a territory, but in the course of the empirical research (Komarova et al., 2021;Balodis, 2022), it became necessary to improve the methodology for assessing the transport development of a territory for the following reasons: while analyzing more scientific publications on the topic of the study, the authors realized that there are not enough components in the conceptual understanding of the transport development of a territory, which would characterize the studied phenomenon in the most comprehensive way; -measuring each separate component of the transport development of a territory, the authors saw the need to develop a single instrument for assessing the transport development of a territoryan index that would allow easier comparison of territories with each other and follow the dynamics of the transport development of a territory in relation to itself.I. NIedole and D. Averyanov conducted a study on the example of Kuldiga county (Latvia), the results of which confirmed the importance of transport infrastructure in the use of the territory's resources (Niedole, Averyanov, 2011).I. NIedole and D. Averyanov empirically proved that the use of the territory's resources is a function of the development of its transport infrastructure.Thus, the results of the analysis based on energy, transport, ICT, and financial infrastructure indices exhibit that cumulative and disaggregated (transport, energy, financial, and information and communication (ICT)) infrastructure development increase resources consumption in BRIGS countries (Sun et al., 2022).The significance of the transport infrastructure in the long-run sustainable economic growth has been proved also in other comparative studies on the transport sector of the EU countries (Cigu et al., 2018;Gherghina et al., 2018).Moreover, the Polish scientists A. Mesjasz-Lech and A. Wlodarczyk within their study on the role of the transport infrastructure in development of sustainable road transport confirmed that the development of the transport infrastructure leads to a limited negative impact of road transport on the natural environment (Mesjasz-Lech & Wlodarczyk, 2022).
Therefore, the authors included the quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory as a necessary component in the conceptual understanding of the phenomenon 'transport development of a territory'.As a result, the transport development of a territory includes the following four components with the corresponding indicators: 1) transportization ‡ level of a territory: road density per 1000 km 2 ; -railroad density per 1000 km 2 ; -inner waterways density per 1000 km 2 .

2) transport internationalization level of a territory:
airport connectivity; -liner shipping connectivity.
3) quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory:  Source: the authors' scheme based on Komarova et al., 2021;Balodis, 2022;Niedole, Averyanov, 2011.All components of the transport development of a territorytransportization level of a territory, transport internationalization level of a territory, quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory and efficiency of transport services in a territoryare selected for further empirical analysis for two main reasons: 1) they describe the transport development of a territory; 2) there is empirical data on them for the European Union countries.
The following table presents the system of components and indicators of the transport development of a territory, which [system] includes the names of components and indicators, their empirical interpretation, measurement unit and scale, as well as the source of empirical data for each indicator.GlobalEconomy.com

Efficiency of train services
The experts' weighted mean answer to the question: "How efficient (i.e.frequency, punctuality, speed, price) are the railway transport services in your country?"Rating scale from 1 (extremely inefficient) to 7 (extremely efficient) Global Competitiveness Report 2019

Efficiency of air transport services
The experts' weighted mean answer to the question: "How efficient (i.e.frequency, punctuality, speed, price) are air transport services in your country?"Rating scale from 1 (extremely inefficient) to 7 (extremely efficient) Global Competitiveness Report 2019

Efficiency of seaport services
The experts' weighted mean answer to the question: "How efficient (i.e.frequency, punctuality, speed, price) are sea port services (ferries, boats) in your country?"Rating scale from 1 (extremely inefficient) to 7 (extremely efficient)

Competitiveness Report 2019
Source: compiled by the authors based on World Economic Forum, 2019;Central Intelligence Agency, 2021;GlobalEconomy.com, 2022aGlobalEconomy.com, , 2022bGlobalEconomy.com, , 2022c. .Based on all the components and indicators included in the structure of the transport development of a territory (Figure 1 and Table 1), the authors will further develop a single instrument for measuring the transport development of a territoryan indexand test it on the example of the European Union countries.Unlike the individual components that were empirically analyzed in the authors' previous studies (Komarova et al., 2021;Balodis, 2022), the synthetic index allows for a comprehensive evaluation of the studied phenomenon in the respective countries and for comparing the European Union countries according to their progress in terms of transport development.
In order to obtain the total value of the index for each studied territory, further calculations are made with the entire set of transport development indicators of a territory for the EU countries in 2019.These data form the empirical basis of the study, which [data] is processed with the index methoda quantitative technique based on minimum and maximum values (Ajvazian, 2005;Gudmundsson & Regmi, 2017;Rybalkin et al., 2021;Rybalkin, 2022), which is applicable for evaluating the transport development of a territory. where: x 'the standardized value of an indicator; xthe initial value of an indicator; min(x)the minimum value of an indicator in a sample; max(x)the maximum value of an indicator in a sample; aa user defined minimum; ba user defined maximum.Source: Rybalkin, 2022.
Next, the standardized value of each component of the index is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the standardized values of the indicators included in it, while the total value of the index is calculated with the arithmetic mean of the standardized values of the four components of the transport development of a territory: where: Indthe total value of the index; x ' 1 -the standardized value of the index component 'transportization level of a territory'; x ' 2 -the standardized value of the index component 'transport internationalization level of a territory'; x ' 3the standardized value of the index component 'quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory'; x ' 4 -the standardized value of the index component 'efficiency of the transport services in a territory'.Source: compiled by the authors based on Rybalkin, 2022.
Thus, the newly developed index includes all four components of the transport development of a territory: transportization level of a territory, transport internationalization level of a territory, quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory, efficiency of the transport services in a territory.The authors of the newly developed Index propose to call it the Territory Transport Development Index (TTDI), which can be used for assessing and comparing the transport development of the European Union countries (as well as other countries).

Research results and discussion
The analysis of the research results begins with the calculation of the non-standardized values of the TTDI components of the European Union countries in 2019.The first is transportization level of a territory, which includes the density of roads, railways and inner waterways per 1000 km 2 (Table 2).As can be seen from the data in Table 2, the most transportized EU countries, in terms of the density of all types of transport roads per 1000 km 2 , are Belgium, the Netherlands and Hungary, while the least transportized are Romania, Bulgaria and Finland.
The following table presents the non-standardized values of the second TTDI componentthe transport internationalization level of a territoryin the European Union countries in 2019.This component includes indicators such as the degree of a territory integration into the global air transport network and the possibility of a territory to "connect" to the global maritime transport network (Table 3).As can be seen from the data in Table 3, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain took the leading positions in the European Union in terms of the transport internationalization of their territories in 2019, while Slovakia, Latvia and Estonia took the last places.
The following table presents the values of the third TTDI componentthe quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory (one of the indicators of this component was standardized according to a scale from 1 to 7) in the European Union countries in 2019.This component includes indicators such as road infrastructure quality, road connectivity within the territory, railway, port and air transport infrastructure quality (Table 4).3.0 3.0 2.8 3.9 4.6 3.5 * Malta is not included in the empirical data analysis due to its very small territory (316 km 2 ).** Countries are ranked by the quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory.*** Initial data is standardized on a scale from 1 to 7, applying the method of minimum and maximum values.**** The arithmetic mean of the indicators' values of the quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory.1quality of road infrastructure, rating scale from 1 to 7; 2road connectivity, score scale from 0 to 100; 3quality of railroad infrastructure, rating scale from 1 to 7; 4quality of port infrastructure, rating scale from 1 to 7; 5quality of air transport infrastructure, rating scale from 1 to 7. Source: compiled and calculated by the authors based on data from World Economic Forum, 2019;GlobalEconomy.com, 2022aGlobalEconomy.com, , 2022bGlobalEconomy.com, , 2022c. .As can be seen from the data in Table 4, in terms of the quality of the transport infrastructure, the leading positions in the European Union in 2019 were occupied by the Netherlands, Spain and Finland, while the last places are occupied by Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania.
The following table presents the non-standardized values of the fourth TTDI componentthe efficiency of the transport services in a territoryin the European Union countries in 2019.This component includes indicators such as the efficiency of train, air transport and seaport services (Table 5).As can be seen from the data in Table 5, in terms of the efficiency of the transport services, the leading positions in the European Union in 2019 were occupied by the Netherlands, Finland and Germany, while the last places are occupied by Romania, Slovakia and Hungary.
The following table presents the standardized values of TTDI in the the European Union countries in 2019.As can be seen from the data in Table 6, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany took the leading positions in the European Union in terms of their transport development in 2019, while Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria took the last places.
The following table summarizes the European Union countries with leading positions according to the Territorial Transport Development Index (TTDI) and its individual components in 2019.As can be seen from the data in Table 7, the Netherlands is the leading country in the transport development of a territory in the European Union, which occupies a leading position in two of the four TTDI componentsthe quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory and the efficiency of the transport services in a territory, as well as in TTDI in general.
As for Latvia, its position among countries in terms of the transport development of a territory can generally be assessed as slightly lower than average, as Latvia ranks 18th among 27 EU countries according to TTDI, one position behind Lithuania and one position ahead of Estonia (Table 6).In Latvia, the strongest field in terms of the transport development is the efficiency of its transport services -12th place among 27 EU countries (Estonia is 10th, Lithuania -17th) (Table 5).The weakest field of Latvia in terms of the transport development is its transport internationalization level -26th place among 27 EU countries (Estonia is 27th, Lithuania -23rd) (Table 3), which is the weakest field of all Baltic countries in terms of their transport development.
The reason for the low transport internationalization level of the Baltic countries may be the long period when they functioned as a gateway for other EU countries to the Russian market (Spens et al., 2004;Mauris, 2022), and this cannot be changed in a short and even medium run.In this regard, great hopes are pinned on the Rail Baltica (Jonaitis & Butkevičius, 2005) called 'the project of the century' (Pomykala, 2018) the largest and most important project currently being implemented in Europe by three Baltic countries.This project is a tool for the integration of the Baltic countries and Europe, as railway infrastructure of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia does not fulfil the requirements of competent network (Laisi & Saranen, 2013), although nowadays the Rail Baltica is undermined due to some reasons, including institutional fragmentation (Briškens, 2022).

Conclusions
The transport development of any territory of the world (but mainly the territories of the world's countries) can be assessed using the authors' newly developed Territory Transport Development Index (TTDI), which includes four components: transportization level of a territory, transport internationalization level of a territory, quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory, efficiency of the transport services in a territory.The use of this index makes it possible to comprehensively assess and compare territoriescountries or regionsaccording to the progress achieved in them in terms of the transport development, as well as to assess the progress of the specific territory in relation to itself.In the modern scientific space, there is no other 'transport' index (for example, the Sustainable Urban Transport Index (SUTI) for cities in the Asia-Pacific region, the Transport Performance Index (TPI), the Rural Transport Implementation Index) that could face the same challenge.
Among the European Union countries, the leading position in terms of the transport development is held by the Netherlands with a TTDI value of 88.7 points in 2019 on a scale from 0 to 100, while Bulgaria has the lowest position with 11.5 points.Latvia's position among the European Union countries in terms of the transport development in general can be assessed as slightly lower than the average.The strongest field of Latvia in terms of the transport development is the efficiency of its transport services, but the weakest is the transport internationalization level, which is the weakest field of the transport development of all the Baltic countries compared to the EU leaders in the field of transport internationalization -Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain.
The limitation of the research is the empirical analysis for one year, but considering that the purpose of the article was mainly methodologicalto develop a single instrument for measuring the transport development of a territory, this limitation was not critical for achieving the research goal within the scope of this article.In addition, the specificity of most indicators of the transport development of a territory is that they practically do not change (especially the transportization level of a territory) in the short term.
The results obtained during the approbation of the newly developed Territory Transport Development Index (TTDI) on the example of the EU countries are novel, since they allow to analyze the transport development of the EU countries both in general and separately in different aspects.The results of empirical analysis are valuable and applicable in the practice of sustainable managementin particular, to justify the need for a particular transport project for each EU country.For example, for the Baltic countries, the most relevant transport projects today are those that will allow these countries to increase their transport internationalization levelthe weakest field of all Baltic countries in terms of their transport development.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.The structure of the concept 'transport development of a territory'

Table 1 .
The system of components and indicators of the transport development of a territory

Table 2 .
Transportization level of territories in the European Union, n = 27 countries,* 2019 Malta is not included in the empirical data analysis due to its very small territory (316 km 2 ).** Countries are ranked by their transportization level.*** The sum of the indicators' values of the transportization level.Source: compiled and calculated by the authors based on data from World Economic Forum, 2019; Central Intelligence Agency, 2021.

Table 3 .
Transport internationalization level of territories in the European Union, n = 27 countries,* 2019

Table 4 .
Quality of the transport infratsructure in the European Union, n = 27 countries,* 2019

Table 5 .
Efficiency of the transport services in the European Union, n = 27 countries,* 2019

Table 7 .
European Union countries with leading positions according to the Territory Transport Development Index (TTDI) and its components, 2019 Source: compiled by the authors according to data of Table6.