The best and the brightest from the fringes of Europe have always thought that it would be best if their countries first satisfied the European Union’s accession conditions and then rejected the vaunted accession offer. Switzerland is the country to emulate, they have argued dreamily. This comes close enough to Groucho Marx’s quip that he would not care to join a club that would accept him, which you bring up in the context of the Union’s belated realization that it is easier to influence a country before than after it joins the club (“Europe’s Marxist Dilemma,” April 26, 2008). If only Switzerland could be emulated within a few generations, let alone a few years, everything would be fine and dandy. Europe would be the place to be. And the Union itself would lose much of its raison d’être.