The difference between European Regulations and Directives

When browsing to the requirements for reporting, you will often find references to documentation of the European Union or more specific the European Banking Authority (EBA).

Some of these documents are called ...Regulations and others ... Directives. So what is the difference?

Regulations

A "regulation" is a binding legislative act. It must be applied in its entirety across the EU.
This means that when the Regulation enters into force it is also the law in the EU member countries.
For example the General Data Protection Regulation is implemented in The Netherlands as the AVG but is a one on one translation of the GDPR.

Directives

A "directive" is a legislative act that sets out a goal that EU countries must achieve. However, it is up to the individual countries to devise their own laws on how to reach these goals.
For example the MIFID Directive was in effect per November 2007 and was worked out in additions to the Dutch 'Wet Financieel Toezicht' wich became in effect in April 2008.