Merkel to chair first Brexit committee meeting next week

German chancellor Angela Merkel will chair a meeting of a cabinet committee on Brexit next Wednesday, during which ministers will discuss organisational and structural issues related to Britain's departure from the European Union.

"The committee will deal with preparations for negotiations on Britain's exit from the European Union, preparations within the federal government as well as by European institutions," government spokesman Steffen Seibert told a regular government news conference on Friday.

“We must identify German interests to feed them into the negotiations,” he said.

Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, economy minister Sigmar Gabriel, foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Merkel's chief of staff Peter Altmaier will be among those present at the meeting, Seibert said, but declined to give further details about the meeting.

It will be the first meeting of the ministerial committee on Brexit, which was set up in November, five months after Britain's vote to leave the EU. It is taking place a day after UK Prime Minister Theresa May gives a speech with details of Britain's goals in exit negotiations with the EU.