EEC ONLINE SPEAKERS
Othmar Karas
President of the European Forum Alpbach (EFA), First Vice President of the European Parliament 2019-2024
Dr. Othmar KARAS
President
EUROPEAN FORUM ALPBACH (EFA)
Franz-Josefs-Kai 13/10 • A-1010 Vienna Raiffeisenbank Alpbachtal
T: +43 1 718 17 11 | forum@alpbach.org | www.alpbach.org IBAN: AT63 3620 3000 0002 0032
UID: ATU80057527 BIC: RZTIAT22203 • ZVR No.: 173455474
As the former First Vice-President of the European Parliament, Dr. Othmar Karas
continues to be regarded as one of the most renowned experts on European issues.
As of October 2024, Karas has been appointed President of the European Forum
Alpbach. He was born in 1957 as the son of an elementary school principal and a
district school inspector in Ybbs an der Donau. From 1999 to 2024, Karas was a
member of the European Parliament. He is thus the longest-serving Austrian MEP and
the only Austrian to have been elected to the Bureau of the European Parliament three
times. Karas was a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee in the
European Parliament for 25 years. There he worked above all, as a leading developer
of today's financial market regulation. Karas was chief negotiator for banking
regulation after the 2008 financial crisis, EU investment programmes and the entire EU
financial market supervision. In addition to his European political activities, he has
been President of Hilfswerk Österreich since 1998.
