Othmar Karas (born 24 December 1957) is an Austrian politician who served as the First Vice-President of the European Parliament since January 2022, having been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 1999. He is a member of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), which in turn affiliates with the European People's Party.

Karas sat on the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect. Between 2012 and 2022, he was one of the vice presidents of the European Parliament. He was elected as First Vice-President on 18 January 2022.

In the European Parliament, Karas became one of the centre-right's experts on financial regulation. As the rapporteur for the Capital Requirements Directive IV, he played a central role in the parliamentary implementation of capital requirements agreed in the Basel III accords. He helped negotiate a 2013 agreement on an EU-wide cap on bankers' bonuses. Alongside Liêm Hoang Ngoc, he later co-drafted a controversial 2014 report highlighting problems with the European Union-led bail-outs of Greece, Portugal, Cyprus and Ireland during the European debt crisis.

In addition to his committee assignments, Karas was the chairman of the parliament's delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee since 2014. He had served previously as member of the delegation for relations with Japan and as a substitute for the delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China.

Within his political bloc, the centre-right European People's Party Group, Karas served as the group's spokesperson on economic affairs from 2002 until 2004 and as vice-president and treasurer from 2004 until 2011. From 2011 until 2019, he led the ÖVP delegation within the EPP group.

In the 2009 European elections, the ÖVP leadership replaced Karas by Ernst Strasser as its lead candidate for the European Parliament;

From the 2019 European Parliament election, Karas served as one of its Vice-Presidents; in this capacity, he was part of the Parliament's leadership under President David Sassoli.

In 2021, Karas was appointed to the EPP group's task force for proposing changes to its rules of procedure to allow for "the possibility of the collective termination of membership of a group of Members rather than just individual membership", alongside Esteban González Pons, Jan Olbrycht, Esther de Lange and Paulo Rangel.

In late 2021, Karas announced his candidacy to succeed Sassoli as President of the European Parliament. The EPP selected Roberta Metsola as their candidate for President to succeed Sassoli, and she was elected President on 18 January 2022. On the same day, Karas was elected First Vice-President of the European Parliament.

In 2020, Karas led an initiative of nearly 40 other EPP members who pushed to expel Tamás Deutsch from their parliamentary group after the latter had compared comments made by group leader Manfred Weber to the slogans of the Gestapo and Hungary's communist-era secret police; Deutsch was eventually suspended but not expelled from the group.

Timeline of positions held

  • Hilfswerk Austria, President (since 1998)
  • Political Academy of the Austrian People's Party, Vice-President
  • Austrian Society for China Studies (ÖGCF), Member of the Presidium
  • Austrian Association of Graduates, Member of the Board
  • Institute for Public Social Responsibility, Member of the Board of Trustees
  • Kangaroo Group, President (2009-2013), Member of the Board (since 2013)

Controversy

In 2005, EU parliamentarian Hans Peter Martin revealed that Karas collected thousands of euros of "daily allowance" of 262 euros a day, even though he was often only in Brussels for a few hours on those days or it was a matter of holiday weeks.

Awards

  • 2003 – Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria
  • 2024 - Winner, Lifetime Achievement Award, The Parliament Magazines MEP Awards.

Personal life

Karas is married to Dr. Christa Waldheim-Karas, daughter of Kurt Waldheim and Elisabeth Waldheim.

References

  • Official website (in German)
  • Declaration of financial interests (in German; PDF file)