Could your dog’s passport soon sit beside yours on your phone?
Not having to carry an identity card or driving licence, with everything held on a phone instead, is a convenience […]
Pet passports could soon become digital files on your phone. The European Commission is evaluating the feasibility of adding cats' and dogs' passports to the EU Digital Identity Wallet, a phone-based system that holds people's identity documents. The plan is tied to a new EU law on dog and cat welfare and traceability, which mandates microchipping, national registration databases, and stricter breeding standards.
The Commission sees merit in digitalising pet passports but stresses the need for technical and practical feasibility testing with member states. The two-year assessment, running alongside existing rules, will determine if a digital pet passport is adopted formally as a delegated act. Once completed, the EU will decide whether to propose the change, which would allow vets, border officers, and airlines to check a pet's identification, vaccinations, and travel history from a phone.
Spain, a pilot country, is testing a similar system called Cartera Digital Beta, currently storing items like driving licences and proof of age. If successful, the digital pet passport could make airport and vet visits more streamlined for pet owners, who currently carry a paper passport alongside an animal health certificate and vaccination records. However, no rollout date is set, and the study is expected to conclude around 2028.
Written by urgent.news from Euro Weekly News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
