Borrell condemns lighting rhetoric to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina

“Retorica that questions Bosnia and Herzegovina's integrity must be stopped. Speaking of divisions, new borders, further ethnic divisions or war is dangerous and unacceptable,” said Borrell on his blog ahead of the foreign ministers' debate on the Western Balkans.

The Western Balkans is one of the two main topics of the regular monthly meeting of foreign ministers meeting in Brussels tomorrow.

The issue of EU enlargement and the Stabilisation and Association Process, designed for Albania and countries out of the former Yugoslavia, will also be discussed at a meeting of the Council of General Affairs on Tuesday, composed mainly of foreign or European ministers.

The EU's “position has not changed and will not change. We support Bosnia and Herzegovina's territorial integrity and sovereignty, and its future lies in the EU as a united and sovereign state,” said Borrell.

Borrell said he pays particular attention to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the situation is extremely difficult and where the political atmosphere has deteriorated recently.

He said that at the end of last year, BiH authorities had responded to “functionally “the migrants' crisis and that “negative transformation” in talks on electoral and constitutional reforms peaked at the display of “paper” that criticises the role of the EU and the US and their efforts to assist in the negotiations.

“One of these pappers proposed reviewing the region's borders and the division of Bosnia on an ethnic basis, which exacerbated the atmosphere and gave impetus to the split and trigger reactions,” said Borrell.

In recent weeks, two so-called “paper” with proposals to address unresolved issues that still weigh the Western Balkans. Such a stated document is attributed to Slovenia, but whose existence or authorship has not been confirmed, proposes the division of Bosnia on ethnic grounds.

This has met with numerous penalties, since border contact is considered extremely dangerous and would bring unpredictable consequences.

Another such document, whose existence and authorship are also unconfirmed, relates to Kosovo and resolving relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Borrell says that due to the worsening situation, he held a video meeting with members of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency about ten days ago.

“was a difficult meeting with many attacks and charges among presidency members,” said Borrell.

Borrell said he called on his conversationors to stop legalisation and anti-productive action.

He said the role of the EU, which is working with the US in negotiations, is to ensure that the proposals on the table are in line with EU standards”, while condemning criticism that could be heard in BiH against special emissary Johann Sattler.

“Efforts to misinterpret the role and goals of the EU and our international partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina are unacceptable. My special representative, who is also the EU representative in BiH, Ambassador Johann Sattler and his staff have my full trust and support,” said Borrell.

Recently, a Sarajevo portal accused Sattler, an Austrian diplomat, of being close to Russia.