On 25 September 2013 the European Commission presented its communication on a new initiative entitled ‘Opening up Education’. This is a joint action of the two DGs Education and Culture (EAC) and Connect. As at this moment it seems we are lacking the understanding on how governments can stimulate the uptake of OER by policy means, questions such as how will this affect the European member states and how can we ensure the realisation of successful, lively and sustainable OER communities are arising fast. In this debate we seek to present and comment on the existing best practices in full-fledged national policies/initiatives.