Othmar Karas (*1957, Ybbs/Donau) is an Austrian politician and, since 1999, Member of the European Parliament. In 2022, Karas was elected First Vice-President of the European Parliament. It is his third term (2012-2014, 2019-2022, since 2022) as a Vice-President. Karas is Vice-Chair of the FISC Subcommittee and Member of the ECON, ITRE and ACFO Committees.
Karas holds a diploma and doctoral degree in political science (University of Vienna) and a Master’s degree in European and international business law (University of St. Gallen) and has worked intermittently as a lecturer at Austrian Universities since 2007.
Since 1998, Karas has been the President of the non-profit-organisation "Hilfswerk Österreich". He is also founded the non-party association "BürgerInnen Forum Europa" in 2010 of which he is still the spokesman today. In the EP he is part of the EPP Group, where he held the Vice-Presidency from 2004 to 2011. Karas also chaired the ÖVP delegation to the EP from 2006 to 2009 and from 2011 to 2019.