BELGRADE - Serbia will not recognize the independence of Kosovo that was unilaterally proclaimed by ethnic Albanians, Serbian Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy Aleksandar Vulin said Monday.

“Recognition (independence) of Kosovo is not an option,” Vulin told reporters in his comment on a statement made by Vice-President and Special Rapporteur of the European Parliament on Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek, in which she said that normalization of relations and recognition of Kosovo would be a condition for Serbia’s accession to the European Union (EU).

There is no document for something like that, but this is a political consensus - normalized relations with Kosovo, and finally the recognition of Kosovo, will be a condition for Serbia's entry into the EU, Lunacek said in an interview published in the Belgrade-based daily Kurir on Sunday.

Vulin said that Lunacek’s statement was a form of putting pressure (on Serbia), stressing, however, that it was a personal standpoint, rather than the official stance of the European institutions.

“We will not recognize Kosovo-Metohija, period!” said Vulin, pointing out that the stance was a result of a consensus reached during the setting up of the current government and that "nothing has changed, nor will it change" in that respect.

International forces entered Kosovo and set up the UN Interim Administration (UNMIK) there after the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement, which brought the NATO aggression and bombing of Serbia to an end, in June 1999.

However, with the support of the United States and Western Europe’s leading powers, ethnic Albanians unilaterally proclaimed independence in the southern Serbian province on February 17, 2008. Serbia does not recognize it.

Negotiations on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina have been taking place under the auspices of the EU in Brussels since 2013.