Hermes was supposed to take 6 astonauts to space.
Then, Challenger exploded.
Engineers had to return back to their drawing boards and they added ejection seats, reducing the crew to just 3 astronauts.
Or, one scientist....
Not long after that, Hermes was dropped.
The European astronauts have for years lobbyed in favor of a capsule, but the ESA (or mainly the CNES) didn't want to develop an "old" technology. It can also be that some astronauts wanted to be able to fly the spacecraft and it therefore needed wings.
The enthusiams waned and it was over.
But now, the Soyuz launcher is poised to be launched from Kourou in the near future and Haigneré is also studying the feasability of manned Soyuz flights from Kourou.