Currently there is a topical issue of implementation models, qualification criteria and characteristic features of supranationality as legal reality accompanying the process of international integration, which is underlain by such values as, inter alia, respect for fundamental rights. It seems reasonable to single out the characteristics reflecting the essence of an integrated supranational association, to analyze the modern practice of implementation of supranational competence and the impact of globalization processes thereon, to summarize the characteristics identified in the doctrine and in judicial practice and, using this as the basis, to explore the phenomenon of supranationality as modern legal reality of international integration. The purpose of this article is to examine the criteria of qualification of supranationality as legal reality accompanying international integration, to describe the trends of its development as a factor and manifestation of integration processes. Considerable attention is given to specific features of the supranational mechanism which is able to operate without seeking the consent of member States of the integrated association in each particular case. The authors note that the term “supranationality” preceded its coming into being in practice. Most scholars attribute its emergence to European integration and believe that this neologism has been introduced into scientific circulation by the federalistic line of European political and legal thought, being its conceptual basis. It is noted that unlike in case of membership of States in international organizations, in case of membership in integrated associations, in particular, in the European Union, the States restrict their sovereign rights conferring some of their rights to the integrated association. In such instance, conferral of rights may not be construed as their loss or loss of the State’s sovereign identification, since only the State is the bearer of sovereignty. What is meant here is a voluntary conferral of certain elements of the State’s internal competence and the simultaneous application on its territory of the national and supranational jurisdictions, with their correlation being dependent on the scope of substantive/jurisdictional powers of supranational institutions which are needed for regulation and, on its basis, for administration of specific areas of activity. The authors arrive at the conclusion that the most eloquent example is the scope and the implementation of the EU’s supranational competency as the chief architect of supranational mechanisms, with its activities covering almost all of the areas peculiar to the State. It is pointed out that in the EU elements of national, inter-State and supranational regulation are closely intertwined, which is an indication of its unique distinctive features including the flexibility of approaches to the use of supranationality as a practical tool for development of integration. The authors offer own definition of supranationality as a political and legal concept within the framework of which the States on a contractual basis transfer a part of their sovereign rights to an integrated association and grant the latter the competence to implement such rights and, within the framework of such competence, to make decisions binding not only on the member States but also, in some cases, on individuals and legal entities within their jurisdiction. The article demonstrates that the EU supranational institutions have been actually conferred, for regulatory purposes, not the material areas proper, but only certain components thereof, with a respective scope of authority, and this is what determines how actively and efficiently the EU will realize the opportunities granted to it; this may become the subject matter of further research.

List of legal documents 
 

Legislation 
1. Consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Official Journal of the Euro pean Union, C 326/01, Vol 55, 26 October 2012. URL: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/ EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.C_.2012.326.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ:C:2012:326:TOC (accessed: 19.12.2017) (in English). 

2. Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, ECSC Treaty, 18 April 
1951. URL: https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/1997/10/13/11a21305-941e-49d7- a171-ed5be548cd58/publishable_en.pdf (accessed: 19.12.2017) (in English)/ 

Cases 
3. Case 106/77 Simmenthal [1978] ECR 629. URL: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/ EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:61977CJ0106&from=EN (accessed: 21.12.2017) (in English). 
4. Case 14/68 Walt v Wilhelm [1969] ECR 1. URL: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/ EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:61968CJ0014&from=IT (accessed: 20.12.2017) (in English). 
5. Case 26/62 Van Gend en Loos [1963] ECR 1. URL: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/ EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:61962CJ0026&from=EN (accessed: 20.12.2017) (in English). 
6. Case 6/64 Costa v ENEL [1964] ECR 585. URL: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent (in English). 

7. Joined cases 7/56 аnd 3-7/57 Algera & Others v Common Assembly [1957-1958] ECR 
39. URL: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:61956CJ00 07&from=EN (accessed: 20.12.2017)(in English). 
8. Joined cases С-402/05 Р аnd С-415/05 Р Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v Council and Commission [2008] ECR I-06351. URL: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/ HR/ALL/?uri=CELEX:62005CJ0402 (accessed: 23.12.2017) (in English). 
 

Bibliography 
 

Authored books 
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Edited books 
16. Blanke H-J, Article 1 ‘Establishment and Functioning of the Union’ in H-J Blanke, S Mangiameli (ed), The Treaty on European Union (TEU) A Commmentary (Springer- Verlag 2013) (DOI:10.1007/978-3-642-31706-4) (in English). 
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Scientific report 
18. Kuleba D, ‘Pryntsyp nadnatsionalnosti u mizhnarodnomu pravi’ [‘Principle of Supranationality in International Law’] (Instytut mizhnarodnykh vidnosyn Kyivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni Tarasa Shevchenka, Kyiv 2011) (i n Ukrainian).