"Klipped" Wings ?

I've just seen a report in the New Scientist suggesting that the European Space Agency will not invest funding in the development of Russia's new Kliper space-plane. This is, to my mind, rather shortsighted. There are real question marks over the chance that the US will ever fly the shuttle again and their proposed Lunar and Martian manned exploration plans may quite possibly not get off the paper they're written on, still less leave a launch-pad...