A starter’s guide : Overview on the main provisions of the Water Framework Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Birds and Habitats Directives, and the Floods Directive : similarities and differences

This starter’s guide provides a brief overview of the five EU environmental directives that target the protection and management of Europe’s freshwater and marine environments. These concern the Habitats Directive (HD), the Birds Directive (BD), the Water Framework Directive (WFD) the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the Floods Directive (FD). The document aims to give practitioners working in different thematic fields at the Member State level a basic insight into the key aspects of these Directives. It summarises the main objectives and provisions of each and examines their commonalities and differences, highlighting in particular potential synergies that should be foreseen when implementing the Directives. The document was presented at the Nature, Biodiversity, Marine and Water (NBMW) Joint Director’s meeting in 25-27 November 2015 in Luxembourg and later amended to take account of the Floods Directive. It follows on from the relevant recommendations of a previous NBMW workshop held in December 2014