Serbian Education Minister Mladen Sarcevic on Thursday accused the Albanian national minority’s representative body of obstructing efforts to secure textbooks for Albanian school children.

“The issue of textbooks for Albanian pupils is being obstructed by the National Council of the Albanian minority,” he said. National minorities in Serbia elect their own national councils as representative bodies in charge of some things that affect them as minorities, including school books in national minority languages. According to the minister, Serbia has 27 national minority councils who are obliged to prepare the required materials, regardless of how many minority children attend school.

“Everything has been done for months on the Serbian side. The procedure under the law is clear. They should have secured translators and were promised help from Albania,” Sarcevic told a session of parliament, answering a question from Party of Democratic Action MP Fatmir Hasani.

Sarcevic demanded to know what rights Serb children enjoy in northern Albania and added that as European Union membership draws closer, the countries of the region, including Albania and North Macedonia, will have to achieve the standards that Serbia has.

The minister said all the national minorities in Serbia had dealt with the issue, adding that the problem with Albanian-language textbooks would be solved in the next two to three months.