The success of the global eradication of smallpox, certified in 1980, encouraged the World Health Organization to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988. At that time, the global prevalence of permanent motor disabilities caused by polio was estimated at 20 million. In 1997, at the request of the WHO, a National Commission for the Certification of Polio Eradication was established by the Directorate General of Health, which tasked it with evaluating the surveillance and control system for polio and proposing measures to certify the absence of wild virus circulation within the national territory. This commission determined that the final stage of polio elimination in France required strengthening the strategy to combat the disease, combining the maintenance of very high vaccination coverage with enhanced clinical vigilance and virological surveillance. It therefore developed an action plan that was approved by the French High Council for Public Health in 1998. The work of this commission is presented in this document.