Immediate open access ‘should be EU default’, says presidency - Research Professional News

"Statement from Swedish presidency of Council of EU follows discussion among research ministers Research papers should be made freely available immediately under open licences as standard in the EU, the Swedish presidency of the Council of the EU member state governments has said. “Making scholarly publications rapidly accessible to all contributes to high-quality research,” the Swedish presidency said on 8 February. “Therefore, providing immediate open access to peer-reviewed research publications under open licences should be the default.” ... This text echoes the presidency statement but goes further in saying that authors should not have to pay fees when publishing their research papers open access. The draft text “stresses that research results should be as open as possible and as closed as necessary, and that immediate and unrestricted open access should be the default mode in publishing, with no fees for authors”. It invites EU member states to update national policies “as soon as possible” to bring about this situation...."