liglats,

Your own ESA(European Space Agency) is a major player in the ISS program. It is building and funding many parts of the ISS and is sending its own astronauts to it, albeit with American and Russian vehicles.

ESA also does its own robotic exploration missions.

ESA has some quirks...each project must give a 20% share to France if France gave 20% of a project's funding, 30% to Norway if Norway gave 30%, and so forth. This is a big pain. It also has its own NASA style beauracracy.

About international projects- the worse thing about ISS is that it cannot be canceled without violating international commitments. Also..its bad enough to have to satisfy American political interests when doing a space project - give something to a powerfull congressman's district, etc. If you add European and Russian political interests in, either the cost and complexities go up eponentially or the project simply dies at the negotiating table. Fortunatly, most projects of this ilk have died at the negotiating table.

There are good things about cooperation in space. Yet it is best that one country(or international agency like the ESA) be both the prime funding source and the sole decisionmaker in each project. This decisionmake must have the ability to pull the plug on the project if neccesary.