European Commission vice-President Frans Timmermans stated the Dublin accord on refugees is not functioning because EU member-states in the periphery had been left to deal with the problems alone. During a press conference in Brussels, Timmermans satted that the reasons Greece and Italy were unable to meet their obligations deriving from the Dublin accord was that the rest of the EU member states had abandoned them during the time of the refugee crisis, adding that everyone must share in the burden. He went on to propose that if a member state was unwilling to accept the proportion of asylum seekers it was obliged to take in, then a country ready accept them would receive financial aid worth 250,000 Euros for each person. Timmermans dubbed the financial aid offered to asylum seekers an act of ‘economic solidarity’, adding that the aid allocated should not only cover immediate refugee needs but long term expenses like education, housing and health care. Timmermans acknowledged that there would be negative reactions by member states, but added that the Dublin accord must be revised. ‘If there is no solidarity on this issue, then there will none on other matters’, said the vice-President of the Commission.