Summer and fall mean vacation time for many families, sometimes with the family pet in tow. If you plan to take your dog, cat or ferret with you as you crisscross Europe, there are a number of things that you’ll need to take into account to make sure that your trip goes smoothly.
What do you need to know if you’re planning on traveling with your furbaby within the EU?
Documentation and Vaccinations
European Union nations have adopted a set of homogeneous regulations when it comes to traveling with pets, which means that your pet can enjoy freedom of movement within all 27 EU countries as well as Norway and Northern Ireland, as long as you follow a few set rules.
Your pet will need a valid microchip or legible tattoo (applied before July 3, 2011), as well as a European pet passport, which contains a description of your pet, its microchip or tattoo code, its rabies vaccination record, and contact details for the authorized veterinarian who issued the passport. For details on what kinds of microchips are valid and how to know which vets are considered to be “authorized,” check out our article on bringing pets into Spain. The same documentation standards spelled out in this article apply.
It is incredibly important that you make sure your pet’s rabies vaccination is up to date. Official documentation of vaccination against rabies is a requirement for dogs, cats and ferrets to travel across EU borders. The minimum age for vaccination is 12 weeks, and 21 days must have passed since the inoculation date before travel.
If you are traveling with your dog from an EU country to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Finland or Norway, you also have to treat it for the tapeworm E. multilocularis at least 24 and a maximum of 120 hours before arriving in your destination country.
A pet passport issued in the non-EU countries of Andorra, Switzerland, the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Greenland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino or Vatican City is also valid to enter and move within the EU. As of January 1, 2021, EU pet passports issued to an owner who is a resident of the UK are no longer valid for travel to and within the EU.
An EU animal health certificate is another type of standardized document which is required to enter the EU from a non-EU country, but it is not required to move within the European Union. However, if you entered the EU from outside it, your pet’s health certificate is only valid for travel between EU countries for four months from its date of issue, or until the anti-rabies vaccination expires (whichever comes first). This health certificate must be issued by an authorized vet no more than 10 days before entering the EU.
If you’re planning to travel in or out of the EU from non-EU countries, including the UK, check out the legal requirements in our article.
Who Can Travel with Pets within the EU and For What Purpose
Pets must travel with their owners; if that isn’t possible for whatever reason, the owner may give written permission to a third party to accompany his or her pet and must be reunited with the pet within five days.
A pet owner may only travel with up to five pets, all of which must be accompanied by the required documentation. If an individual is traveling with more than six cats, dogs or ferrets, that person must show proof that the animals are participating in some kind of sporting competition (i.e., a dog show, by showing the animals’ official registration certificates), and are more than six months old.
The above requirements only cover the transportation of your pet if the journey doesn’t involve its sale or change of ownership; for example, if you travel between two EU countries to sell your dog’s puppies. It’s always a good idea to attach a written declaration to your pet’s passport (or animal health certificate, if it has one) stating that the travel or relocation is for non-commercial purposes.
All of the above rules also apply to recognized guide dogs, which are permitted to travel in the passenger cabins of airplanes, boats and trains.
Other Kinds of Pets
If your pet is any other breed besides a dog, cat, or ferret—such as a reptile, bird, aquatic animal, rodent, rabbit, amphibian or any other animal considered to be a pet by the Regulation (EU) No. 576/2013— the rules are anything but homogeneous from country to country, even within the EU. You should check each country’s specific requirements as to the documentation required. For example, in order to bring pet birds into Spain from another EU country, the bird must be accompanied by a health certificate no more than 10 days old, issued by an authorized vet, and which is compliant with the official INTRA-2 template (in Spanish).