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This article aims at underling the translation conditions of European standards and is based on a comparison between the implementation of the employment policy for disabled persons in Aquitaine (a French Region) and in Ravenna (an Italian Province). The first part deals with the paradigm shift which affected the disability policies during the 1970s and which is now the standard guiding these policies. Because the nature of political system intrinsically determines the levels of public action, the second part aims at presenting the evolution of French and Italian national contexts as well as the differences between both countries. The third part - based on the comparison of the implementation process in Ravenna and in Aquitaine - questions the underlying logic of public action towards disabled people.