The article contains a comparative analysis of constitutional and other legislative provisions that ensure a trade union's right to define its own administrative structure in European states. The aim of the study is to reveal the management's problems of European trade unions, declarative and empirical mass-character legislative provisions, which allow to structure trade unions by themselves. The result is that the state should not set forth an exhaustive list of various types of trade unions. The article also examines the authority of trade union associations to define the requirements imposed on their members' charters. These requirements are argued to comply with the principle of the freedom of association. Moreover, the work reveals that many European legislative provisions are declarated but rarely realized in sphere of inner management. The novelty of the research is the comparative analytic review, basing on the modern local and collective European laws.