In the wake of a ruling last month that ritual slaughter was unconstitutional, the Polish Ministry of Agriculture has proposed an amendment to the law on animal welfare in order to protect the practice.

Parliament is scheduled to vote on the proposed change next month.

In a statement, the Ministry of Agriculture said that steps would be taken to avoid an infringement of a new EU regulation that approves ritual slaughter for all the EU’s 27 states and comes into effect on January 1, 2013. “Such deadline… allows the legislature to amend the provisions on the protection of animals,” the statement said.