As you point out, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, and Gordon Brown are a funny trio to run anything, let alone Europe (“The Perils of Three-Legged Races,” April 5, 2008). But a trio it still is, and as such it surely beats duos like those of François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl or Gerhard Schröder and Jacques Chirac. Although Spain and Italy seem to be far from providing worthy members of an eventual quintet, a modest enlargement at the helm is undoubtedly a palpable departure in the right direction. The Franco-German engine is no longer enough to run anything, anyhow. No matter how long we will need to wait for the right quintet, the real question that remains behind the problem of running Europe is when it will eventually be replaced by a single voice. That glorious solo! That Charlemagne of our own! The way things look at the moment, this may never happen. And, it is good to remember, this is almost certainly for the better.