ITER is mostly a colossal waste of money. Its just amazing how we spend that absurd amount of money on some fusion project when Europe hasn't even manage to make GenIV fission happen.
And in pure fusion research terms, having 100 smaller research project over that time period would have yielded far more results.
The technology relevant for fusion is evolving fast and ITER is already 2 technology generations behind.
But I agree with you, Europe has the capacity to invest if they get ideas in their head. But this space based solar I do not think has that broad a support base.