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Greek Parliament Unanimously Passes Historic 2026 National Funds Budgets

Groundbreaking Approval In Parliament

For the first time, the Hellenic Parliament has unanimously approved the 2026 budgets for four major national funds. The decision marks an important step in public financial planning and signals broad political agreement on fiscal priorities and spending discipline.

Social Security Fund Budget: A Surplus Vision

The enactment of the first law confirmed the 2026 budget for the Social Security Fund (TEKA), which allocates expenditures amounting to €2,743,074,164. With total revenues estimated at €3,769,782,936, the fund is positioned as surplus. The revenue stream is largely driven by contributions of €3,217,065,000, supplemented by receipts from the National Reserve Fund intended for the minimum pension (€34,451,000), interest earnings of €225,916,292, and additional income of €292,350,644. Notably, the dominant expenditure category is pension disbursements at €2,172,611,000, with further allocations for supplementary benefits, unemployment allowances, procurement of services, administrative expenses, and other outlays.

Central Licensing Fund’s Balanced Outlook

In tandem with the Social Security Fund, Parliament also approved the 2026 budget for the Central Licensing Fund. This fund outlines total expenditures of €132,433,736 against revenues of €144,319,048, emerging with a surplus. Revenues are forecasted mainly from contributions of €140,036,010, interest earnings of €4,248,038, and accrued minor receipts, while expenditures primarily cover licensing disbursements, associated administrative expenses, and contingency allocations.

Protecting Employee Rights in Insolvency

The budget for the Fund for the Protection of Employee Rights in the Event of Employer Insolvency was also given the green light. This fund is designed to manage €231,452 in expenditures against revenues of €33,287,400, indicating a considerable surplus. With revenues predominantly sourced from contributions of €27,417,936 and interest earnings of €5,869,454, the fund’s primary expenses include payments associated with employer insolvency, service procurement by the Social Security Agency, and modest administrative and reserve allocations.

Addressing Excess Personnel Costs

The final fund approved is the Excess Personnel Fund for 2026, which details expenditures of €58,103,793 alongside revenues of €180,819,059. Contributions of €165,168,286 form the major revenue component, complemented by interest and ancillary incomes. The fund’s principal expenses cover compensation for surplus staffing, transfers to the Employee Rights Protection Fund under insolvency, service purchases from the Social Security Services, legal fees, discretionary administrative expenses, and a designated reserve for unforeseen costs.

Strategic Fiscal Oversight

These pioneering budget submissions, presented to Parliament following a proposal by the House of Representatives and in accordance with the Law on Fiscal Responsibility and the Fiscal Framework Law, reflect a robust and balanced approach toward national financial management. This coordinated effort reinforces the government’s commitment to maintaining fiscal discipline while safeguarding essential social benefits and labor rights.

Anthropic Launches Claude Fable 5 With New AI Safety Controls

New Model Sets The Bar For AI Safety And Efficiency

Anthropic has launched Claude Fable 5, the latest public version of its Mythos model, expanding access to a system designed for software engineering, knowledge work and computer vision tasks. The company said high-risk requests involving areas such as cybersecurity, biology, chemistry and AI model distillation will be redirected to Claude Opus 4.8, which has been configured with additional safeguards.

Strategic Rollout And Broader Accessibility

Mythos was initially made available to a limited group of partners in April as Anthropic evaluated potential cybersecurity risks associated with the model. Access was expanded last week to hundreds of organisations across 15 countries, primarily those operating critical infrastructure. Claude Fable 5 is now available through Anthropic’s Claude API and usage-based Enterprise plans. Early access has also been included in selected subscription tiers ahead of a broader pricing rollout scheduled for June 23.

Advancing Safety And Industry Standards

Anthropic said the model underwent extensive safety testing before release, including bug bounty programmes and red-team exercises conducted by external organisations. According to the company, more than 1,000 hours of testing did not identify any universal jailbreak vulnerabilities.

A mandatory 30-day data retention policy will apply to all traffic processed by the model, including accounts that previously operated under zero-retention agreements. Anthropic said the measure is intended to improve monitoring and protection against emerging security threats.

Outstanding Performance And Competitive Pricing

Independent evaluations, including testing by analytics company Hex, reported strong performance in complex reasoning and analytical tasks. Companies, including Base44 and Genspark, highlighted improvements in tool use and interface design capabilities. Pricing has been set at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, compared with lower rates for previous models. Some enterprise customers, including Rakuten, said the model’s ability to verify aspects of its own output could help improve efficiency in tasks that require higher levels of accuracy.

Implications For The AI Market

The release comes as Anthropic prepares for a potential public market debut, and competition among leading AI developers continues to intensify. Alongside performance improvements, the company has placed significant emphasis on model safety, reflecting broader industry concerns around misuse, jailbreak attempts and the risks associated with increasingly capable AI systems.

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