“We will come out of competitions policy, we will come out of the Common Agricultural Policy.
“But we will do this in a way which will be a smooth and orderly Brexit that protects jobs, protects livelihoods and also meets our commitment to no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.”
Mrs Merkel said: “I can only say on behalf of all the people of Germany that even after Britain has left the EU we want to have as close a relationship with Britain as possible, which I think is true for the other EU member states.
“What we want to do now is bring the negotiating process forward, Britain will table a White Paper and we have actually made progress.”
She said the 27 remaining EU nations will soon table “a common response” to the UK proposal.
“That is a good thing, where we have proposals on the table,” she added.