This article analyses the role of Italian (institutional and non-institutional) actors in the area of state aid to labour and industry, two particularly sensitive European policies. The comparison between two decisions—the one concerning state incentives for youth employment and the other concerning the double recapitalization of Alitalia—allows the author to conclude that Italian policy preferences are best promoted when a viable compromise solution is first reached domestically and then pushed through the Union, and when Italian actors manage to argue their case in EU-compatible terms.