Public procurement reform currently being implemented in the EU is supposed to facilitate its use as an instrument of the Europe 2020 strategy and the goals of sustainable development. It involves redefining the function of public procurement, hitherto associated with increasing the spending efficiency of contracting authorities, due to competition on the open European market. The demands to strengthen the so-called social dimension of European Integration enjoy broad public support. However, there is no simple optimizing formula for simultaneously promoting competition on the open public procurement market and achieving sustainable development. Based on previous experience, the practical range of possible simultaneous implementation of these goals seems to be limited. At the same time one may notice an imbalance of international trade generated by an open public procurement market, which aggravates the realization of socio-economic convergence goals.