Considering the UK has collaborated for both the Tornado and the Typhoon I still think it amazing that France can still 'go it alone' and make a commercial success of the Mirage (or should that be Mirages), and hopefully now the Rafale
Collaboration was only a minor handicap to the Tornado program, as during the coldwar there were profound common objectives.
But Dassault has benefited from French independence as they have succeeded in producing a multi-role aircraft to their own vision, without the handicap of having to divide construction between partners for political reasons as was the case for Typhoon - for example, Alenia make the left wing of each Typhoon, and EADS make the right wing. Can that really be an efficient process? Typhoon would/should have been cancelled in 1995, but for the political complexity of getting 3-4 interested nations to agree. Going it alone does have its advantages....