The ESS Council was responsible for the organisation and co-ordination of the ESS project and included the representatives of all the participating institutes as well as the chairman of the European Neutron Scattering Association. It was chaired by Dr Peter Tindemans (The Hague).

The spallation source projects which were already underway in the USA and Japan were represented by observers.The Council decided on overall strategy, matters that had a major impact on the scope and design of the facility, appointing the members of the Project-Directorate and the Task Leaders on the proposal of the Project Director, appointing the chair persons and members of the SAC and the TAC, yearly budgets and accounts.

COUNCIL	MEMBERS
F Barocchi, ENSA & INFM, Univ. Firenze	H Rauch, Atominstitut, TU Wien
A Belushkin, JINR, Dubna	D Reistad, Univ. Uppsala
A Deriu, (Secretary), Univ. Parma	D Schildt, CCLRC, Didcot
C Dopazo, CIEMAT, Madrid	M Steiner, HMI, Berlin
R Eichler, PSI, Villigen	P Tindemans (Chairman), The Hague
R Feidenhans'l, Risø, Roskilde	A Verkooijen, IRI, Delft
H Klein, Univ. Frankfurt/Main	R Wagner, FZJ, Jülich
E Koptelov, INR, Moscow	M Zoppi, CNR, Firenze
COUNCIL	OBSERVERS
C Carlile, ILL, Grenoble	S Nagamiya, J-PARC, Tsukuba
R Cywinski, Univ. Leeds	G Ricco, INFN, Univ. Genova
I Lacis, Univ. Latvia	N Williams, ESF, Strasbourg
T Mason, SNS, Oak Ridge