I am not particularly informed on European aerospace and I am not disputing your point. As a historical note France was very economically competitive mid-50s - 60s but had troubling competing after that.
Ariane 6 will bring down the cost somewhat in line with SpaceX, though it won't be quite enough to gain an edge. But there is already an ongoing effort to bring down the costs even more: Ariane NEXT. Research projects include the Prometheus engine [1] (which could be used on Ariane 6), Adeline [2] or Callisto [3]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_(rocket_engine)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adeline_(rocket_stage)
[3] https://spacenews.com/ariane-6-is-nearing-completion-but-eur...