Important to mention here open access can also mean "authors pay the journal thousands of dollars to enable open access to their paper" (e.g. 4.5k for Science advances). Given that arxiv.org runs with about 16$/paper according to their latest report and most of the important things like peer review, editing etc. is handled by volunteers, I hope the EU will add limits on the amount of funding going to the journals soon to kill this type of rent seeking.

> EU-funded

If it was funded by the taxpayers it should be accessible to (all the) taxpayers. This is something that EU (usa,...) should regulate and make it mandatory. If you expect Johnny the Plumber to pay for research, Johnny expects to be able to read what you did with his money.

> only in open-access journals

That's usually just a deflection, you have to pay $5000+ to publish in those newly-established open-access-offshoot journals or pay equivalent for the open access privilege in the old journals.

Prestige still has a hefty price.