EU Must Focus On Own Future Not Just Brexit, Says Merkel

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel reiterated on Monday that Germany and the European Union wanted “to keep having a good relationship with Great Britain” after Brexit.

Speaking at an event in Stralsund in her constituency on the Baltic Sea coast, Merkel said the the remaining 27 EU member states needed to avoid “under all circumstances” concentrating solely on Brexit negotiations.

Instead, the German Chancellor said, EU members should focus on their own future.

Merkel also asked for mercy for local farmers who, according to her, are subject to too much bureaucracy.

To laughter from the audience, she recounted the story of one farmer who told her not just school children needed an absence note but also cows if they “don’t go out into the field on a particular day.

“We will now rather intensively deal with the Brexit negotiations of Great Britain but that’s just one thing. We want to keep having a good relationship with Great Britain but we must under no circumstances simply concentrate on these Brexit negotiations. Rather, the 27 member states must deal with their own future and here, the digital internal market is just one topic.

“And while I’m at it let me also say that the second pillar of the joint agriculture policy surely can be de-bureaucratised a little, when you look at all the things that need to be proven. I guess it’s no longer necessary for each parent to sign an absence note for a child in school – Mrs. Schwesig says ‘yes’ – but now you also need to write absence notes for cows which don’t go out into the field on a particular day. So we need to make sure that our farmers (laughter heard) – this is what a farmer recently told me.”

Merkel hopes to be re-elected as chancellor for a fourth term when Germans go to the polls on Sept. 24.