Othmar Karas is an Austrian politician

Politics of Austria

The Politics of Austria take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, with a Federal Chancellor as the head of government, and a Federal President as head of state. Executive power is exercised by the governments, both local and federal...

 and Member of the European Parliament

Member of the European Parliament

A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...

. He is a member of the Austrian People's Party

Austrian People's Party

The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...

, vice-chair of the EPP-ED group, and sits on the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

He is also a substitute for the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, a member of the delegation for relations with Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, a substitute for the delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

, and a member of the temporary committee on policy challenges and budgetary means of the enlarged Union 2007–2013.

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

Kurt Waldheim

Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992...

 and Elisabeth Waldheim

Elisabeth Waldheim

Elisabeth Waldheim is the widow of Kurt Waldheim, the former UN Secretary-General and President of Austria. She was the First Lady of Austria from 1986 to 1992....

.

Career

• Mag. phil. (1996)
• Master of European and International Business Law (MBL), University of St. Gallen
  University of St. Gallen
  The University of St. Gallen is a public research university located in St. Gallen, Switzerland. It is specialized in the fields of business administration, economics, law, and international affairs. The University of St. Gallen is also known as HSG, which is an abbreviation of its former German...
  
   (1997)
• Manager in the banking and insurance sector (since 1981)
• Assistant Secretary-General of Bundesländer Versicherung (currently on leave of absence)
• Federal president of the Union of Students (1976–1979)
• Political adviser to the ÖVP (1979–1980)
• First Vice-Chairman of the Austrian Federal Youth Association (1980–1990)
• Federal Chairman of the Young ÖVP (1981–1990)
• Member of the national executive of the ÖVP (1981–1991)
• Secretary-General of the ÖVP (1995–1999)
• President of the Austrian Aid Organisation (since 1998)
• First Vice-President of Hilfswerk Austria (since 1998)
• Vice-President of the Young European Christian-Democrats (EUJCD) (1981–1990)
• Member of the EPP Bureau and Council (since 1995)
• Member of the steering committee of the European Democratic Union (EDU) (since 1995)
• Member of the board of the Austrian Association of Graduates
• Member of the Land and federal executives of the Austrian Workers' and Employees' Association (ÖAAB)
• Member of the Nationalrat (1983–1990)
• Member of the European Parliament (since 1999)
• Vice-President of the Political Academy
• Vice-President of the Friedrich Funder Institute

External links

• Official website (in German
  German language
  German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
  
  )
• European Parliament biography
• Declaration of financial interests
  Declaration of financial interests
  Declarations of financial interests are a means of making conflict of interestsof people in public office known and to reduce them by making them public.- European Parliament :...
  
   (in German; PDF
  Portable Document Format
  Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
  
   file)