Alternative European 5th generation fighters?

[Lascaris]

Basically what it says on the tin. Back as the time you had British, French and Swedish studies for 5th generation aircraft, the British with FOAS and Replica are likely the best known, but Dassault apparently had FACE and supposed SAAB studies have aired at times but no actual development project. The British jumped the F-35 bandwagon as did Italy and France failed to do anything giving F-35 a virtual monopoly if you are a Western nation looking for a 5th generation fighter.

So how do you change that? What it would take for France for example, as the... usual suspect for going their own way, to begin a 5th generation program in the early 2000s?