We present conditions for existence of solutions of equilibrium problems, which are sufficient in finite dimensional spaces, without making any monotonicity assumption on the bifunction which defines the problem. As a consequence we establish surjectivity of set-valued operators of the form T + λI, with λ > 0, where T satisfies a property weaker than monotonicity, which we call pre-monotonicity. We study next the notion of maximal pre-monotonicity. Finally we adapt our condition for non-convex optimization problems, obtaining as a by-product an alternative proof of Frank-Wolfe's Theorem. © Heldermann Verlag.