The European Union is not making the recognition of Kosovo a formal condition of Serbia's EU accession, but good-neighborly relations and regional cooperation are a requirement that must be met before joining the EU, Natasha Butler, the spokeswoman for EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, said Friday in Brussels.

There is no formal condition that Serbia must recognize Kosovo, but it is clear that regional cooperation and reconciliation are key requirements in the enlargement process, whose realization will be assessed by the European Commission (EC) and whose fulfillment will allow Serbia to join the EU, Butler said at a regular news conference.

Asked to comment on the statement which EC President Jose Manuel Barroso gave Thursday that Serbia does not have to recognize Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence in order to become an EU member country, Butler said that good-neighborly relations, the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo and all aspects under consideration in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue are the requirements the EU and the EC will take into account, which is why Serbia needs to meet them if it wants to get into the EU.

I can confirm that neither the negotiation process between Belgrade and Pristina, nor the recognition of Kosovo's independence are posed as conditions to Serbia, Barroso said Thursday in Belgrade, after a meeting with Serbian President Boris Tadic.