The 2014 EU Street Nomenclature Directive was a controversial piece of EU legislation intended to regulate and systematise the naming of streets in European Union member states. It’s primary function was to ensure that all EU streets were given unique names, with duplicate names altered, in order to clean up a system which the EU’s Committee for Transport, Tourism and Pedantry described as “repetitive, incomprehensible and needlessly convoluted” in a 438 page proposal submitted in 1994.

Though the bill was unpopular with the general European public, it was finally ratified in June 2014 amid controversy over aggressive negotiations by Belgian MEP Frédèric Delvaux to secure its passing. It was later revealed that Delvaux was in fact a majority shareholder in a European Law Consultancy firm which would subsequently make over €1.2 billion in providing legal advice to affected parties, during a litigation process which spanned more than 40 …