The rhetoric questioning the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and calls for the redrawing of borders have to stop, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said on Sunday in a blog post.

He added that there is “no change in the EU’s support to the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

“Rhetoric calling into question the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina… has to stop. Talking about secession, new borders, further ethnic divisions or war, is dangerous and unacceptable,” Josep Borrell wrote in a blog post published on Sunday, ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Western Balkans is one of the two main topics of the regular monthly meeting of EU foreign ministers to be held in Brussels on Monday. Issues related to EU enlargement and the Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) – designed as a stage towards EU membership for countries that had emerged after the breakup of Yugoslavia and for Albania – will also be discussed at a meeting of the General Affairs Council on Tuesday.

“The EU’s position has not changed and will not change: we support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its future lies within the EU as a united and sovereign country,” Borrell said.

He also called the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina “extremely difficult” and added that the political atmosphere in the country has recently deteriorated.

“We have witnessed a disturbing migrant crisis at the end of last year with very dysfunctional responses from the Bosnian authorities. In recent weeks, a negative spin around the ongoing talks on the necessary electoral and constitutional reforms culminated in various ‘non-papers’, some of which criticized the EU/US for their facilitating role in these efforts. One of them also called for redrawing borders in the region and partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina along ethnic lines, which has aggravated the atmosphere and triggered a push for a secessionist agenda and inflammatory reactions,” Borell said.

In recent weeks two so-called non-papers have appeared in regional media, with proposals for dealing with outstanding issues that still burden the Western Balkans. One of the documents, which has been attributed to officials of EU-member Slovenia – but whose existence or authorship have not been confirmed by any official sources – proposed the partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina along ethnic lines.

Although its authenticity or relevance has never been confirmed, the very talk of the proposal was condemned by virtually all regional political officials.

Croatian state agency Hina reported that the existence and authorship of the other document are “questionable” and that it “refers to Kosovo and relations between Kosovo and Serbia” – without any clarification.

Borrell said that some ten days ago he held a video-meeting with members of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency due to the “deterioration of the situation.”

“It was a difficult meeting, with many attacks and recriminations between the three members of Bosnja’s Presidency… A key deliverable is the constitutional and electoral reform. This may sound ambitious, but there is no way around amending the Bosnian Constitution to meet EU standards and implement the pending European Court of Human Rights (verdict) in the Sejdic-Finci case…,” Borrell said.

He was referring to a 2009 case in which Bosnian nationals Dervo Sejdic and Jakob Finci – an ethnic Roma and ethnic Jew – had sued Bosnia and Herzegovina over the country’s election law which only allows ethnic Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs to stand for election to the country’s upper house of parliament, the House of Peoples.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina needs also an amended electoral framework in line with OSCE and GRECO (transparency) recommendations. I know these reforms are difficult and touch upon very sensitive issues: we need constructive engagement of all leaders across the political spectrum and civil society in order to succeed,” Borrell said.

“The role of the EU, together with the US, is to facilitate the talks and ensure that the proposals (put) on the table are aligned with EU standards,” Borrell said, condemning attacks on European Union’s Special Representative to Bosnia, Johann Sattler.

“Attempts to misrepresent the role and intent of the EU and our international partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina are unacceptable. My Special Representative, who is also the EU’s representative in Bosnia, ambassador Johann Sattler, and his staff, have my full confidence and support,” Borrell said.

A Sarajevo-based news portal recently accused Sattler, an Austrian diplomat, of being close to Russia.