14. Notes that farm input costs are rising faster than agricultural commodity prices; is concerned that this could result in reduced farm output, which would exacerbate the food crisis in the EU and in the world; stresses that concentration in the input sector has devastating effects on the sustainability of farming, fostering dependency on a limited number of corporations for the purchasing of seeds and specialised fertilizers; calls on the Commission to ensure, in the context of increased consolidation, that a freely operating market functions in the input sector, contributing to food supply;

14. Notes that farm input costs are rising faster than agricultural commodity prices; is concerned that this could result in reduced farm output, which would exacerbate the food crisis in the EU and in the world; stresses that concentration in the input sector has devastating effects on the sustainability of farming, fostering dependency on a limited number of corporations for the purchasing of seeds and specialised fertilizers; calls on the Commission to ensure, in the context of increased consolidation, that a freely operating market functions in the input sector, contributing to food supply;

·Key action: Leverage more privateinvestment through the strategic use of pre-commercial procurement and public-private partnerships, by using structural funds for research and innovation and by maintaining a pace of 20% yearly increase of the ICT RD budget at least for the duration of FP7.

7. Underlines the fact that the discipline of wage moderation also acts as a brake on the growth of household income and thereby on private consumption; therefore warns against focusing exclusively on wage moderation as an instrument to achieve price stability and maintain competitiveness; recalls that increased global competition has already contributed to downward pressure on wages, while higher commodity prices and energy costs have reduced the purchasing power of EU consumers; emphasises that real salaries should rise in line with productivity gains, in order to guarantee long-term stability in the distribution of income;

Purchasing power in the ten accession countries is currently rising about twice as fast as in the EU-15.

In the last year the pace of mergers between electricity companies has accelerated, for example the takeovers by German companies in the UK including PowerGen being bought by Eon and RWE’s purchase of National Power.