In light of current economic crisis, State spending is becoming increasingly debated. An important aspect of State spending is public purchasing, which EU regulates by public procurement (PP) regulations. Importance of social and economic goals is often negotiated in this field. The paper argues that given increasing contracting out at national level and growing EU regulation of public purchasing, extended use of contracts has lead to hidden Europeanization. Furthermore, the contracting process itself has entered the field long characterized by strong tension between economic and social considerations. PP thereby is becoming a field where limits between the 'social' and the 'economic' as well as importance of social and economic considerations are negotiated. While supremacy of economic over social issues is a rationale that already underlies PP regulations and debates, lack of agreement on admissible social considerations means that decision-making is delegated to fields other than regulation by directives.