[inglor_cz]

That is the problem, right?

EU countries, not having a reusable rocket at their disposal, will have to pay through the nose for every launch, discarding the entire expensive rocket in the process.

Of course, that will limit their ability to launch satellites into space: the cost of discarding a rocket is high (let's not even start about fairing dimensions and subsequent limits on payload size). Wrecking a sophisticated machine after each use is uneconomical.

Meanwhile, the US is galloping towards much cheaper launchers. This means that by 2030 or so, they will be able to put orders of magnitude more tonnage onto orbit.

China noticed - and it is trying their darndest to close the gap.

[TheLoafOfBread]

So EU having Arianne 6 is actually a good thing.

[inglor_cz]

It is better than not having it. In the same sense that it is better having a steam-powered railway than no railway capacity at all.

But spending on development of new steam engines when the competition already has electric ones is pretty backward.