MNI BRIEF: EC Mulls Draghi Report Release Date As Vote On Der Leyen Looms

MNI (LONDON) - The EU Commission is pondering the best time to release the long-awaited report which its President Ursula von der Leyen commissioned from former ECB President and Italian Premier Mario Draghi into Europe's failing global competitiveness. 

While the report has been printed and awaiting publication for some time already, Commission nervousness over the outcome of the July 18 secret ballot of MEPs on whether to grant von der Leyen a second five-year term is holding back its release.  Von der Leyen has been engaged in weeks of difficult talks with EP political groups to persuade them to give their support to her policy plans for the next Commission mandate. One likely concern may be that the enthusiasm of Draghi for new EU joint borrowing schemes.  

Although it is believed a release date of July 22 has been pencilled in, the publication date could well slip even further now now into the autumn when Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to coincide with the appointments of her new commissioners.