In the years before the establishment of the ESN, many European Neurochemists (from Biochemistry, Physiology, Neurology and related disciplines) were centrally involved in the development of the subject, for example in the discussions which led to the establishment of the Journal of Neurochemistry in 1956 and especially in the formation of the ISN in 1967. In the decade before the foundation of ESN in 1976, half of the ISN officers (Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer) were from European countries († Derek Richter, † Paul Mandel, † Brian Ansell), as described in histories of the ISN († McIlwain, 1985; Bachelard, 1993). Since then to the present, the same proportion of 50% of ISN Officers have been European († Brian Ansell, Elizabeth Bock, Frode Fonnum, Tina Garcia, Bernd Hamprecht, Tim Hawthorne, Elling Kvamme, † Giuseppe Porcellati, Arne Schousboe, with a further 2 of European origin: Roger Butterworth and Victor Whittaker).

In the same year as the foundation of ISN (1967), the Neurochemical Group of the British Biochemical Society was established, many of its meetings with an international and particularly European flavour (Bachelard, 1988).

During the years 1974 to 1975, in particular at a meeting of clinical neurochemists organised by Armand Lowenthal in Brussels in 1974, many participants expressed the need in Europe for a Society of Neurochemistry which would not only provide a forum for exchanging ideas and new developments in the subject, but also provide a vehicle for strong contact between clinically-oriented and basic neurochemists. The various views were finally co–coordinated at a meeting organised by † Lars Svennerholm at the Billinghus conference centre in Skovde , Sweden , in May, 1975. Some general principles were agreed: that it should be open to members from all European countries, East and West, who were interested in Neurochemistry and allied subjects, and that it should pay special attention to clinical and applied aspects of the subject.

A Working Party was set up to organise the basis for the new society, which consisted of † D. Biesold, (Leipzig), † A.N. Davison (London), Z. Lodin (Prague), A. Lowenthal (Brussels), † P. Mandel (Strasbourg), † G. Porcellati (Perugia), † L. Svennerholm (Göteborg), H.J. Van der Helm (Amsterdam) and H. Woelk (Erlangen).