Well actually their STATED GOAL was to be highly competitive in the international launch market as well. When Ariane 6 was greenlit there was much talk about that this investment needed to be made to be competitive and so on and so on.

And of course now 10 years later its all like 'all we wanted is independent space access'.

Of course if that was the case just flying Ariane 5 would have been better. Not having 3 different rockets would have been better.

And sadly they're behind even China at this point, which is a bit of a joke if we're honest.

ESA is a perfect example for what a bureaucratic monster Europe is these days. With a similar budget as CNSA but no clear vision and goals, the funds have mostly been wasted in recent years. They have the engineers, a good spaceport, the knowledge, etc... everything they'd need. But the stagnating political culture is holding them back. The US went through something similar, but at least with the private spaceflight boom the Americans seem to have snapped out of it.