diff --git a/selftest/parallel.sh b/selftest/parallel.sh
index 49ec458..14b6e95 100755
--- a/selftest/parallel.sh
+++ b/selftest/parallel.sh
@@ -23,5 +23,10 @@ export OPENSSL_CONF=/non-existing-file
 # https://bugs.python.org/issue35045
 # https://bugs.python.org/issue38815
 
+# setuptools 60+ uses its own copy of distutils by default
+# this setting must be overriden with the environment variable for
+# Python tests to use the standard library's distutils
+export SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib
+
 $PYTHON -m test.pythoninfo
 $PYTHON -m test -wW -j$JOBS $X