diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 18da59f52a95026d9f1faa7ba6768a5e8ee8575b..7f3859c1d17a46f8c2f5454ef7572db39dbe43e2 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ COMPUTE_PROJECT_ARGS(PROJECT_ARGS LANGUAGES CXX)
 PROJECT(${PROJECT_NAME} ${PROJECT_ARGS})
 
 IF(BUILD_PYTHON_INTERFACE)
-  ADD_PROJECT_DEPENDENCY(pinocchio 2.1.0 REQUIRED PKG_CONFIG_REQUIRES "pinocchio >= 2.1.0")
+  ADD_PROJECT_DEPENDENCY(pinocchio)
   FINDPYTHON()
   STRING(REGEX REPLACE "-" "_" PY_NAME ${PROJECT_NAME})
   ADD_SUBDIRECTORY(python)
diff --git a/unittest/CMakeLists.txt b/unittest/CMakeLists.txt
index db6ef14631016badedf353a9e1258b961acea70d..18fe801a52de73121dbc6b6cf7e3907f8fd073a4 100644
--- a/unittest/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/unittest/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+IF(NOT pinocchio_FOUND)
+  MESSAGE(FATAL_ERROR "Pinocchio is required to build unit tests\n"
+  "please either install Pinocchio or reconfigure without unit tests (-DBUILD_TESTING=OFF)")
+ENDIF(NOT pinocchio_FOUND)
+
 SET(${PROJECT_NAME}_PYTHON_TESTS
   load
   )