Pet owners travelling with dogs, cats or ferrets in the EU face updated rules from today, including clearer limits on how many animals can be transported and tighter requirements for identifying pets.
The changes cover the “non-commercial movement” of pets — trips where animals travel with their owner rather than being moved for sale or transfer of ownership — and bring the rules into the EU’s animal health law framework, the European Commission informed in a release on Wednesday.
Existing requirements remain in place, including rabies vaccination for dogs, cats and ferrets.
Animals entering the EU from non-EU countries must also have had a rabies antibody test, while pets travelling from an EU country or Northern Ireland to another EU country or Northern Ireland must have a valid European pet passport.
For travel from a non-EU country into the EU, owners must carry a valid EU animal health certificate.
The updated rules clarify that a maximum of five pet animals is permitted per vehicle.
They also set out conditions for transiting pets through the EU when travelling from one non-EU country to another, and procedures for cases where a pet is refused entry by a non-EU country and returned to the EU.
Phased changes to certificates and ID
New requirements also tighten pet identification rules, including specifying what information must appear in identification documents, such as the code of the pet’s country of origin, according to the Commission.
While most changes apply from today, new EU animal health certificates must be used from 1 October 2026.
Updated passports and new identification requirements will become mandatory from 1 January 2028.
