DiEM25 is about the only thing to make me feel optimistic right now. At least they have some sort of plan. You can read a summary of their plan for a European New Deal here:
https://diem25.org/diem25-unveils-its-european-new-deal-an-economic-agenda-for-european-recovery
edit: I made a summary of their 6 main policies for those who don't want to read the link, mixture of my own words and some copy pasting. Seems pretty good to me.
1- Taming finance and establishing a new public digital payments platform that ends the monopoly of banks over Europe’s payments.
Creation of a public digital payments system based on smart phone apps and debit cards issued by the state. This will allow for multi-lateral cancellation of arrears between the state and private sector, make it easier for states to borrow directly from citizens, create new sources of investment funding and reduce denomination costs in the event of bank closures or the euro's disintegration.
The goal is to democratise the financial system and take back control from the private banking system and "independent" central banks.
2 - Green investment-led recovery: Linking central banking with public investment vehicles and the new public digital payments platforms
Public investment to create jobs with a priority based on green technology, financed by public bonds issued by a European public investment bank, and investment funding at the national level sourced from the digital payments system.
3 - Backing the maintainers in their own communities to stem forced migration
Anti-poverty program - a common European fund for poverty relief, based initially on state issued debit cards for nutrition assistance, and later extended to unemployment insurance and topping up low pensions.
Housing program - A multi-lateral agreement among all European countries to fund and guarantee decent housing, and restore the social housing model. Additionally, protection against eviction - people foreclosed upon will be allowed to stay in their homes at rents set by the local authority, which will incentivise lenders to renegotiate mortgages rather than foreclose.
Jobs guarantee program - A multi-lateral agreement among European countries to fund and guarantee jobs for all citizens. They would be created in the public and non-profit sectors and paid at a common living wage set on a national scale and local authorities should provide a job to anyone who requests one. The net cost will be funded by a special tax (to be introduced across Europe on the basis of the multilateral agreement between EU and non-EU countries) on the market value of land used by corporations (except agriculture) that is a decreasing function of the corporation’s waged employees – i.e. a tax to be paid primarily by firms occupying large, expensive buildings in which few workers are employed.
These 3 planks of the anti-poverty program will also be funded by the accumulating seignorage profits of Europe's central banks, the fiscal space made available by the public digital payments program, and a carbon emissions tax. Free movement between EU countries will be dependent on each country having accepted its obligation to provide decent housing and employment for its citizens, e.g. someone from Poland can enjoy free movement only if the Polish government is fulfilling its own obligations.
4- Dealing with the Eurozone crisis: A plan to save the Eurozone that simultaneously civilises the euro and minimises the cost of its disintegration
Policy 1 – The digital public payment system - See above
Policy 2 - Case by case bank program - Banks in need of recapitalisation from the EU’s ‘bailout’ fund (the European Stability Mechanism – ESM) can be turned over to the ESM directly – instead of having the national government borrow on the bank’s behalf. The ESM, and not the national government, would then restructure, recapitalise and resolve the failing banks.
Policy 3 - Limited debt conversion program - The ECB will offer member-states the opportunity of a debt conversion for their Maastricht Compliant Debt (MCD), while the national shares of the converted debt would continue to be serviced separately by each member state. In effect, the ECB would orchestrate a conversion servicing loan for the MCD, for the purposes of redeeming those bonds upon maturity.
Policy 4 - Investment led convergence and recovery program - A pan-Eurozone investment led recovery equal to 5% of the Eurozone's GDP. The European Investment Bank will focus on large infrastructural projects, and the European Investment Fund will focus on start ups, innovative firms, SMEs, green technology research etc. The EIB and EIF will issue bonds to cover the project in its totality, and the ECB steps in as a secondary market to ensure the bonds do not suffer from high yields.
Policy 5 - Emergency social solidarity program to combat poverty - See above
5- Coordination between Eurozone and non-Eurozone monetary and fiscal policies to maximise Europe’s recovery
Europe’s central banks, government and the European Commission must coordinate fiscal, monetary and social policy so as to optimise the economic and social outcomes across Europe.
6- Planning for a post-capitalist, authentically open and liberal Europe: the role of a Universal Basic Dividend and the democratisation of the economic sphere
DiEM25 rejects the idea of a universal minimum income as long as it is to be funded by taxes. A tax-funded UBI would undermine the existing welfare state and sow the seeds of antagonism between the working poor and the unemployed. However, DiEM25 is proposing a different scheme – a universal basic dividend which encapsulates the following three propositions: taxes cannot be a legitimate source of financing for such schemes; the rise of machines must be embraced; and a basic unearned payment is a contributor to basic freedom. But if the scheme is not funded by taxation, how should it be funded? The answer is: From the returns to capital.
A common myth is that capital is created by capitalists who then have a right to its returns. This was never true. It is far less so today. Every time one of us looks something up on Google, she or he contributes to Google’s capital. Yet it is only Google’s shareholders that have a right to claim the returns to this, largely socially produced, capital. Moreover, automation, digitisation and the role played in capital formation by government grants and community contributions to the stock of knowledge make it impossible to know which part of a corporation’s capital was created by its owners and which by the public at large. DiEM25 proposes a simple policy: That legislation be enacted requiring that a percentage of capital stock (shares) from every initial public offering (IPO) be channelled into a Commons Capital Depository, with the associated dividends funding a universal basic dividend (UBD). This UBD should, and can be, entirely independent of welfare payments, unemployment insurance, and so forth, thus ameliorating the concern that it would replace the welfare state, which embodies the concept of reciprocity between waged workers and the unemployed. For Europe to embrace the rise of the machines, but ensure that they contribute to shared prosperity, it must grant every citizen property rights over the monetary returns they produce, thus yielding a UBD.
A universal basic dividend allows for new understandings of liberty and equality that bridge hitherto irreconcilable political blocs, while stabilising society and reinvigorating the notion of shared prosperity in the face of otherwise destabilising technological innovation. Disagreements of course will continue; but they will be about issues such as the proportion of company shares that should go to the Depository, how much welfare support and unemployment insurance should be layered on top of the UBD, and the content of labour contracts. Page 22 of 26 Additionally, DiEM25 proposes that, in good time, the governance of financial institutions (especially those backed by taxpayers) and other corporations be democratised, with increasing participation in their boards of directors of representatives of local, regional and national communities.
