The aim of the article is to identify the impact of formal and informal institutions in the convergence of social and economic area of cross-border region, as well as the definition of the main directions of leveling institutional barriers that block the convergence processes in the trans boundary area between Ukraine and the EU. As a scientific and methodological basis of research performed in the course of writing this article, the provisions of economic theory and achievements of the Ukrainian and foreign scientists on institutional analysis, regional economy, the convergence theory, international economic relations have been used. In the process of writing the abstract-logical, comparative, monographic and heuristic methods of scientific research have been used. It has been established that in the present social and economic conditions, institutional barriers have a significant limiting effect on the convergence of social and economic area of cross-border region between the EU and Ukraine. It has been revealed that the most significant factors are the presence of blocking the institutional vacuum and the destructive effect of a number of informal institutions. The attention is focused on an increasingly important role in a further intensification of the European integration processes in the crossborder dimension of economic cooperation between Ukraine and the EU, the institutionalization of cross-border space. Directions of leveling institutional barriers in order to enhance the convergence of socio-economic area of cross-border region between the EU and Ukraine have been suggested. The attention is focused on the priority development of scientific and educational sphere, the need to improve the quality of human capital of border territories of Ukraine, as well as the importance of modernization of border infrastructure as a key factor of social and economic convergence space of investigated trans boundary region. The elements of scientific novelty, contained in the article, are a perfect ranking of institutional barriers that limit the convergence of social and economic area of cross-border region between the EU and Ukraine. The practical significance of the publication lies in the formulation of proposals for the state authorities and local self-government on the mechanisms and means to improve institutional support for cross-border cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in order to equalize the proportions of economic development of border regions of Ukraine and neighboring EU Member States. It is advisable to conduct further studies of this problem searching for effective means of leveling the institutional dysfunction in the trans boundary area between Ukraine and the EU, as well as developing institutional and organizational, institutional and legal, and institutional and administrative measures, aimed at strengthening convergence processes in cross-border regions with the participation of border regions of Ukraine.