Stability is indeed a strength of EU - effectively averaging over all the countries smooths over political oscillations - which is useful for tackling long-term policy problems (like climate). I'm not advocating majoritarian voting where 51% overrides 49%. However with ± 30 countries, one or two should not block the rest - the current system leads to transactional brinkmanship where the last hold-outs get some prize in return for postponed obstruction. I've seen similar (worse) problems in UN climate negotiations - also due to "consensus" principle.

As an American I suggest the EU finds a way to make it work, even if y'all need to take a crowbar to Orban's knees (proverbially) to get him to cooperate. Holding together as political entity is hard, ugly work, and sometimes you need to get ugly to maintain unity.

What you don't want to do is commit was crimes. That should always be a hard line. One out own government has crossed all too often. But it's hard to live up to ideals. But if you sink to the same level as Putin, you're not really winning.