(c)continueing to provide tools for the assessment and management of global security challenges such as terrorism and non-proliferation (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (in the Euratom programme)) and threats arising from socio-political instability and communicable diseases; new areas to be addressed include vulnerability and resilience to emerging or hybrid threats, e.g. accessibility to raw materials, piracy, resource scarcity/competition and effects of climate change on occurrence of natural disasters.

14. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to apply competition and media rules, to ensure competition in order to address and prevent dominant positions, possibly through setting lower competition thresholds in the media industry than in other markets, to guarantee the access of new entrants on the market, to intervene where the media are excessively concentrated and where media pluralism, independence and freedom are in danger, in order to ensure that all EU citizens have access to free and diversified media in all Member States, and to recommend improvements where needed; stresses that the existence of press groups owned by enterprises that have the power to award public procurement contracts represents a threat to media independ ...[+++]ence; calls on the Commission to assess how existing competition rules relate to the increasing concentration of commercial media in the Member States; calls on the Commission to propose concrete measures to safeguard media pluralism and prevent excessive media concentration;

G. whereas, notwithstanding all the efforts to cope with the economic crisis, cartels remain the most serious threat to competition, consumer welfare and the proper functioning of markets, and consequently cannot be accepted even during an economic crisis;

Economic threats, such as unfair competition by third countries, and threats to bee health, as well as biological threats such as diseases, parasites, environmental pollution and the unconsidered use of pesticides.

Nevertheless, the Commission is aware of the potential risk of cross-subsidisation to fair competition.

It has in particular stressed that, according to Article 87.2.b of the EC Treaty, Member States may be authorised by the Commission to "grant aids to make good the damage caused by exceptional occurrences", if those aids are clearly limited in amount and duration, so that any overcompensation threatening intra-Community competition is avoided as well as any abusive exploitation of the American tragic events to cover losses which some European air companies might have faced already before the crisis.