The notion of ecosystem services appeared late in France, which has been reluctant to adopt this idea, choosing instead to defend the concept of the multifunctionality of agriculture. The French position is analysed considering the emergence and then the removal of multifunctionality in the international agenda for agricultural negotiations, followed by the rise of ecosystem services (services provided by ecosystems to society) and environmental services (produced by actors). These trends are re fl ected by the French agri-environmental measures: a sense of acknowledging and valuing the multifunctionality of agriculture for the management, at the margin, of environmental issues in agricultural policy.