"Ministers gathered at the Grand Palais Éphémère (GPE) in Paris are sure therefore to focus their investments in the programmes expected to generate the biggest economic returns."

And that's the problem. Everyone is trying to get funds for their own existing industries selling old technology and their toy projects.

Unless Europe wants to rely on SpaceX, they need to massively increase their launch capacity and get cost down. They will fall behind in space if they cannot launch cheaper and at a much larger scale.

Getting a single rover to Mars had been done years ago. It's not moving us forward. Not when the US is actively planning manned colonies on the Moon and Mars.