[This abstract can be sent in English] The history of the European trade union movement of the last century has been marked in particular by a shift, which is more or less slow between countries, from a low dominant mode of activity to class collective action, towards a position of intervention and involvement in the social and political institutions of the state, through the expansion of collective labour bargaining, ‘social dialogue’ and social pacts. the form of relations between trade unions and ‘friends’ parties (Christians Democrats, Socialists or Communists) has always had a significant effect in the work capital mediation processes and the adoption of certain models of strategies and tactics by the organised labour movement. This paper is based on a socio-historical comparative analysis of the Belgian and Spanish trade union, their current degree of autonomy and their positioning within the regime. Defuting the fundamental historical and structural differences between the trade unions in Europe’s northern (nocorporatist) and southern (‘political’) trade unions, he will try to grasp the common trends in attitudes towards the national states of European trade unions, which are simultaneously under pressure from the international centralisation of capital, the Europeanisation of industrial relations and internal contradictions — in terms of the representation of workers’ interests — which are increasing and appearing in the social war now triggered by the sovereign debt crisis, especially when it is led by the ‘allis’ in power. Finally, a proposal should be made to take stock of the socio-political lessons that the development of the labour movement in these two countries can bring for the analysis and the prospects for the transformation of trade union in Latin America, in the light of the combined challenges posed by governments on popular fronts and the outbreak of the global economic crisis on the continent.