The remark was made at Merkel’s conservative party's board on Monday, according to two participants who spoke to Reuters.

She also touched upon market uncertainty provoked by the UK referendum on leaving the EU.

Merkel said there is concern in the international financial markets that Brexit is a sign of the European Union no longer being governable.

The Chancellor reportedly said this was not the time for deepening cooperation between member states, arguing instead for the need to focus on ever-present issues facing the union, chief among them being border security, international security and the creation of jobs at home.

And according to Merkel’s spokesman, Britain hasn’t really left until it invokes Article 50 of the EU treaty pertaining to members leaving before any informal talks on the conditions for its departure are had. According to the spokesman, “if the [UK] government needs a reasonable amount of time to do that, we respect that.”

"One thing is clear: before Britain has sent this request there will be no informal preliminary talks about the modalities of leaving," spokesman Steffen Seibert told a news conference RT reported.

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