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After the Recommendation of the European Commission on "Scientific Information in the Digital Age: Access, Dissemination and Preservation", as well as a survey by CREST indicating that most EU countries do not possess explicit policies on the access and dissemination of research, EU member states begun to work on policies to enhance Open Access to research, especially publicly funded research. Some countries have, in fact, adopted specific policies on this issue.

These policies can be discerned into two categories: those that have become law of the state, and those that have been issued by various ministries and other public research funding bodies. The institution of Open Access at the level of state law is a target for member states, according to the Commission. For now, only Spain possesses a provision on Open Access at the level of a law.

Short descriptions of these policies of EU member states follow below.

Laws that include an Open Access mandate
Spain
According to the law on Research, Technology and Innovation, passed in May 2011, publicly funded research is a public good. As such it is mandated that it be accessible to all through open access in institutional or subject repositories at the latest twelve months upon publication. These open access publications can also be used in the evaluation of research.

Open Access policies/mandates of ministries and/or public funding bodies
Netherlands
In February 2010 the Dutch Organization for Research (NWO) approved a budget of 2,5 million euro to support Open Access. (Incentive Fund Open Access Publications). This budget covers publication fees of up to 5,000 euro per project, for publication in Open Access journals of research funded by NWO. These costs usually concern the fee usually charged to authors for publications (author pays model). According to the president of NWO, his organization will consider an Open Access mandate for research it funds as of next year, if the incentive fund for Open Access publications does not contribute sufficiently toward increasing Open Access.

Ireland
Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) implemented its policy on Open Access in the beginning of 2009. It requires publications resulting from partial or full funding from SFI to be deposited in repositories at the latest sixth months after publication. This policy concerns peer-reviewed publications (articles, monographs), conference proceedings, technical reports, as well as data and software, where possible. SFI further requires the deposit of publication metadata in appropriate repositories immediately after publication. The costs of publishing in Open Access or depositing in Open Access repositories are considered eligible costs in SFI funding schemes.

Austria
The Austrian Science Fund has explicit Open Access policies, according to which researchers funded by the ASF are obliged to publish their research in Open Access journals or deposit it in Open Access repositories at the latest six months after publication, unless there is legal reasons to prevent this. ASF covers expenses for Open Access publications of peer-reviewed research that it funds up to three years after the research project is over. It also obliges ASF-funded researchers to deposit their research data in appropriate subject repositories at the latest two years after the research project is over.

Hungary
The Open Access policy of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund calls for Open Access to the research it funds either through direct publication in Open Access journals or through self-archiving in appropriate subject or institutional repositories, including that of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

United Kingdom
In June 2006 the Executive Group of the seven Research Councils of the U.K., which carry an annual budget for research funding of approximately 2,8 billion pounds, issued a position statement on Open Access. It called for the deposition in appropriate Open Access repositories of the research funded by the Councils. Consequent to this, six of the seven Research Councils in the U.K. have issued policies on Open Access for the research they fund, requiring recipients of research funding to deposit their papers in appropriate repositories.