This study aims to establish a framework for the growing number of trend analyses that have been performed on river flows in Europe. Most studies apply statistical trend test to fixed periods with relatively short records. Fixed periods are crucial for trend testing, as they provide an appropriate visualisation in a geographical sense. However, short-term changes can often be inconsistent with long-term trends. This study adopts two methods of trend testing. First, a trend analysis is performed over five fixed periods with an identical end year, on a varying number of stream gauges based on record length availability. Afterwards, a temporal sensitivity analysis is performed, whereby trends are estimated on all combinations of start and end year. This method is performed on stream gauges with at least 60 years of record length. These two methods are performed on an encompassing set of hydrological signatures, with the intent to capture the temporal sensitivity in all aspects of the streamflow regime. The results of the fixed period analysis display distinct but coherent spatial patterns for each signature. Furthermore, the results reveal a considerable amount of temporal variability in all signatures. This temporal sensitivity is elucidated further by the results of the temporal sensitivity analysis, which shows that trend analyses are extremely sensitive to the choice of both the start and end year of the considered period. The study provides a reference for comparison of both past, present and future studies. The temporal sensitivity analysis is shown to be a powerful tool and is recommended for future trend analysis studies to contextualize the short-term trends.