This article considers that the Horizon 2020 (H2020) Open Access (OA) policy can be adopted as a policy model in European Research Area (ERA) countries for the development and increasing alignment of OA policies. Accordingly, the OA policy landscape in five ERA countries – Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the UK – is assessed and the extent of alignment or divergence of those policies with the H2020 OA policy is examined. The article concludes by considering some of the impacts that aligning OA policies may have and looking at mechanisms that may contribute towards enhancing policy alignment. Note: the supporting data from this assessment may be found in the following data repository: https://zenodo.org/record/31155.