GREECE slipped officially from the deathly grip of the EU, European Central Bank, IMF “troika” today — but the years of austerity will continue.

EU financial affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici said that the formal end to Greece’s so-called bailout programme “draws a symbolic line under an existential crisis” that saw Greece close to being kicked out of the eurozone.

He was “conscious that all those people may not feel that their situation has yet improved much — if at all.”

Mr Moscovici sympathised with “retired people who saw their pensions slashed, workers who lost their jobs, families who lost their homes, parents who saw their children leave the country for a better future elsewhere.”

Nevertheless, he gave the Greek people his “simple” message that “Europe will continue to work with you and for you.”

The Greek economy is currently 25 per cent smaller than at the beginning of the financial crisis sparked by foreign private banks and bailed out by successive Athens governments on the backs of working people.

One in 10 Greeks have left the country to seek work overseas while 20 per cent of those who remain are unemployed and average incomes have slumped by a third.

Previously successful state enterprises were bundled up as security for the bailouts and have either been privatised or face being snapped up by foreign transnational corporations.

The ruling “left-wing” Syriza party, which was elected on a pledge of ending austerity before ratting on its promise, confessed: “We’re not planning any parties” to celebrate the end of direct “troika” economic supervision.