Pets get their passports too

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 1st Oct 2004

Graham Watson MEP with his Italian wife Rita, daughter Frederica, son Gregory and their dog Brillig. The family are looking forward to not having to leave Brillig behind when they visit Rita's family in Italy.

As of today (Friday 1 October) new rules to allow pets to travel freely with their owners will apply throughout the EU.

The so-called "pet passport" scheme means that pet owners can take their cats, dogs and ferrets with them when they travel to another country in the EU. The passport will be accepted as proof that a pet has received the anti-rabies vaccination.

The EU has set a period of eight years for Member States to introduce pet identification by a microchip that will link the pet to its individual passport. Britain, which already requires travelling pets to carry the microchip, has led the way in developing the alternative to the long and troublesome two-month quarantine control.

South West & Gibraltar Lib Dem MEP Graham Watson has long championed the scheme. He said;

"This is good news for British pets and their owners. It's a great leap forward for freedom of movement in Europe. Now the bond between pet and owner need not hold back Britons who want to live and work in another EU country."

The new rules have been enabled partly by the dramatic decline in the number of cases of rabies amongst cats and dogs recorded annually in the EU. In the last decade, cases fell from 500 to just five.

Mr Watson carried on to say;

"Now that the threat of rabies has been almost entirely been eliminated I am glad that the European Commission has followed the British example in making it easier for people to travel with their pets. The misery days of having to put a much loved pet in quarantine for 2 months are now over."

The free movement of pet insects, birds and fish, as well as hamsters, rabbits and guinea pigs will also be permitted by the new law.