Italian labour policies in their compliance to European Strategy guidelines, so far have proved themselves unable to face the structural weaknesses of the Italian labour market which, still persist and in some cases are getting worse. In this framework, the aim of this article is to analyse the European programme known as Youth Guarantee in relation with the wider trend of employment policies in Italy within which the programme operates. Youth Guarantee does not seem to have achieved significant results in Italy nor to represent the best approach to serve the purpose for which it was designed on a European level. As we will try to show, such inadequacy is mainly caused by delays and inefficiencies, but it also originates from issues which are of a more general nature and are strictly related to labour market policies.
Keywords: Labour market policies, youth unemployment, Youth Guarantee, Not in employment, education or training (Neet)