Britain asks to rejoin EU pet passport scheme
Britain has asked to rejoin the EU's pet passport scheme during the Brexit reset negotiations, The Telegraph can reveal.
An estimated quarter of a million UK pet owners took their cats and dogs on holiday with them to the EU each year before Britain left the pet passport at the end of the Brexit transition period in Jan 2021.
It is now far more difficult, time consuming and expensive for British pets to travel to the EU and Northern Ireland under post-Brexit rules that also apply to assistance dogs.
UK officials have pushed for British cats, dogs and ferrets to regain EU freedom of movement in negotiations over a new Swiss-style veterinary deal to boost trade.
'We have always been clear that that kind of agreement can bring all kinds of benefits,' a Government source told The Telegraph ahead of Monday's UK-EU summit in London, where the reset deal is set to be announced.
The Government is expected to cave to EU demands for a long-term deal on fish in a concession to secure the agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules, paving the way to rejoin the pet passport scheme.
A deal making it easier for young EU citizens to live, work and study in the UK for a limited period is also thought to be close.
Labour has said it will listen to 'sensible proposals' on youth mobility in separate reset negotiations after previously ruling it out. EU capitals also want the UK to rejoin the Erasmus student exchange scheme.
The SPS deal will mean Britain aligning with EU rules on plant and animal health and following European Court of Justice decisions on them.
'Dynamic alignment' makes the UK a rule-taker, which has agreed to change its laws to match the EU's even though it no longer has a say in their drafting.
The EU pet passport is a simple, single document that is valid for life, provided rabies vaccinations are kept up to date.
The current arrangements mean that owners must get an animal health certificate from a vet no more than 10 days before departure every time they wish to travel to the EU.
That is only granted to a dog if it is treated for tapeworm between one and five days before travel. Dogs, cats and ferrets must also be vaccinated for rabies but have to wait at least three weeks after the first jab before going on holiday with their owners.
The same restrictions apply to British dogs, cats and ferrets travelling to Northern Ireland because of the region's Brexit deal that sees it continue to follow EU rules to prevent a hard Irish border.
On June 4, those rules will be replaced by lighter touch regulations as part of the Windsor Framework deal but that could now be supplanted by UK membership of the EU pet passport scheme, which will allow onward travel into the Republic of Ireland.
Rachel Spencer, 49, a pet travel blogger from Lymm, Cheshire, said: 'Dogs are part of the family and you want to give them the best life, to spend as much time as you can with them and taking them on holiday is such a wonderful thing to do.
'Having to leave them behind is distressing, it's hard to relax on holiday and frustrating when just a few years ago under the old pet passport scheme it was relatively easy to take them with you.'
Ms Spencer owns a pet-friendly holiday cottage in Robin Hood's Bay and said she had seen bookings double in the last two years as pet owners opted to take staycations rather than leave their animals behind.
'Ultimately though, we want our pets to be free to go where they like and experience different places and have adventures. So to have freedom of movement for dogs again would be really positive for pet owners,' she said.
Only Swiss-style alignment allows for membership of the EU pet passport scheme, which is a kind of health certificate.
It is not possible under the current arrangements for non-EU countries without a bespoke veterinary deal, like Britain.
It would also not be offered under the mutual recognition deal the EU has with New Zealand where the two regulatory systems are seen as reaching the same goal by different means.
Before Labour took power, Brussels consistently rejected British requests for a New Zealand-style deal that does not involve abiding by the decisions of the European Court of Justice.
EU officials have dangled rejoining pet passports as an incentive to past Tory governments to ditch New Zealand and go Swiss.
A Swiss deal will also dramatically cut post-Brexit border checks on agrifood. The Telegraph revealed it will also end EU bans on British fresh sausages, mince and live bivalve molluscs like oysters, clams, scallops and mussels.
Experts believe the SPS deal will only have a negligible impact on economic growth, adding on rough estimates, perhaps 0.1 per cent to UK GDP.
It could also weaken stricter UK animal protection laws, lead to new restrictions on certain fertilisers and slow moves in England to allow the gene-editing of crops.
The European Commission has refused to comment on the negotiations before Monday's summit.
The Financial Times reported on Thursday that EU capitals are putting Brussels under pressure to drive a harder line in the talks to secure more concessions on fish and Erasmus.
The Government has said it will not give a running commentary on the talks but any decisions it will make will be in the national interest.
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