Isar Aerospace already has a binding agreement with CNES to launch from the work-in-progress commercial launch complex at Kourou (French Guiana).

> As the first privately funded launch company, Isar Aerospace has signed a binding agreement with the French space agency CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales, National Center for Space Research) for the use of the launch site in Kourou. [...] Before the launches take place, the appropriate infrastructure is still to be built at the "Centre Spatial Guyanais" (CSG) launch site.

(Source: Astrodrom, 21 July 2022).

> So the ESA Director General has made clear he isn't interested in reforming geo-return.

A recent article on the geo-return policy written by ESA's DG sounds a lot more nuanced and promising, though:

> To enhance compatibility between geo-return and competition, the policy of geo-return should increasingly shift towards a ‘fair contribution’ principle, that is to adjust the contribution of each Member State according to the outcome of the industrial competitions and to the actual share gained by its industry in these competitions. Several ESA programmes, especially in close-to-market sectors such as telecommunications, are already built in this manner.

Source: Josef Aschbacher - "The competitiveness of ESA’s Geo-return policy", 20 Mar 2023.

Further commercialization of the space industry is already heavily underway in Europe and is pretty much orienting towards a market-based approach anyway, it's just going to take a while to truly see the effects.

The funding allocated for Ariane, Vega and new micro launcher startups across Europe to guarantee domestic launch options is pretty much nothing and is less market-distorting than those humongous budgets China and US have for space, whether civilian or military.

You do know EU governments and ESA have used and will use SpaceX rockets for some of their launches, right? ESA and its member states are never going to catch up to US or Chinese government funding on space. They simply lack the needed ambition. I'm just hoping European NewSpace companies are going to pick up the slack with mostly private funding.

How about you compare space subsidies between ESA and the US over the last decades? ESA and its member states have a way leaner budget. You could say they're much more careful and efficient with spending tax payer money.