"Unilateral action and protectionism are not the answer," she added. Focusing on European issues particularly, Merkel urged closer cooperation in the EU in order to solve problems in Europe.



"Brexit has almost encouraged us to concentrate on the big issues," she added. Specifically, Merkel called on more actions on digitalisation rather than "debating philosophical issues", saying that it was too slow in EU to decide how to deal with big data, which has made Europe lag behind.

"We now have to re-oriented economic policies, creating a digital single market," she pointed out, reminding that Europe is under great pressure due to the presence of large American companies.

In addition, Merkel also called for efforts to tackle with fractured capital market by establishing capital markets union, as well as completing banking union, so as to weather the crisis at early stage.