Brussels, 05/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Kangaroo Group (headed by German Christian Democrat MEP Karl von Wogau) has initiated a permanent working group on economic aspects of European defence. It has discussed a draft resolution by Gary Titley (UK, Labour) that will be debated at Tuesday's plenary next week on European defence policy (see p.15). the resolution calls on the Commission to adopt an updated version of the 1997 action plan for the European defence industry to facilitate the creation of multinational defence companies. The resolution highlights the role of R&D to create a strong and effective European defence industry, and stresses the importance of the A400M aeroplane project in this connection. The resolution calls for greater harmonisation and standardisation of training and equipment and calls once again for a European armament agency to be set up, building on existing structures like WEAO and OCCAR.