Personal Data
Reinhold Lopatka was born on 27 January, 1960, in Vorau, Austria. He studied law and theology at KarlFranzens-University in Graz, where he earned his PhD in 1982, passing with distinction in all subjects (magna cum laude).
After finishing military service, he worked from 1983 – 1989 as an assistant professor (lecturer) at the Law Department of Karl Franzens-University. He was chairman of the Styrian branch of the youth wing of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) from 1983 to 1991, and deputy chairman of the national branch of the youth wing of the ÖVP from 1984 to 1990.
From 1986 to 2003 Lopatka was member of the Styrian state parliament. In November 2000, he was unanimously elected caucus chairman in Styria. From 2003 until 2007, he was a Member of the Austrian Parliament and Secretary General of the Austrian People’s Party.
From 2007 to 2008, Reinhold Lopatka held the position of a State Secretary (State Minister) of Sport within the Federal Chancellery. He was chairman of the organising committee of the European Football Championship (EURO 2008), which took place in Austria and Switzerland. From 2008 to 2011, he was State Secretary (State Minister) within the Federal Ministry of Finance, where he was responsible for international financial institutions and customs matters. From 2012 to 2013 he was State Secretary (State Minister) in the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs. From 2013 to 2017 he was Chairman of the parliamentary group of the Austrian People’s Party. He served also as Vice-Chairman of the Austrian People´s Party from 2014 to 2017. Since 2011, he has been party-spokesman for European and Foreign Affairs. Lopatka was also from 2017 to 2024 a member of the National Security Council, the federal government’s central advisory body on foreign, security and defence policy matters.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker appointed Lopatka 2018 as a member of the Task Force on Subsidiarity, Proportionality and “Doing Less More Efficiently” (2018-2019). In 2018 he has also been elected by the International Democratic Union (IDU), an international alliance of conservative and christian democratic parties, as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. From 2017 to 2024 Lopatka was Head of the Austrian delegation to the Interparliamentary Union (IPU), the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the EU (COSAC), the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and Deputy Head of the Austrian delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. From 2019 to 2022 he was elected as chairman of the High-Level Group on Countering Terrorism of IPU, having currently 179 member parliaments. From 2020 to 2024 he was Head of the Austrian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and from 2023 to 2024 he served as Vice-President and as Chairman of the Sub-Committee on the Middle East and Arab World of the PACE. He was also Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism (CCT) of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and from 2021 to 2024 he served as Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. In 2022, Lopatka was appointed as Special Representative of OSCE-PA for
Parliamentary Dialogue on Ukraine. He was also elected as Chair of the Coordination Mechanism of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), where parliamentary assemblies from all regions of the world work together on counter-terrorism issues. Lopatka was Chairman of the Standing Sub-Committee on EU Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Austrian National Council from 2017 to 2024.
On June 10, 2024, he was elected as the Head of the ÖVP Delegation in the European Parliament. Since July 2024, Lopatka has been Head of the Delegation of the European Parliament for relations with the Arab Peninsula.
He was elected ten times in his constituency. He hold 4 terms in the Styrian State Parliament and 6 terms in the National Council of Austria.
In addition to other positions, he was Vice-Chairman of the Styrian People´s Party (2004-2022) and was Vice-President of the Political Academy of the Austrian People’s Party (2004-2017). Since 2010, he has been President of the Austrian-Australian Society. He was also President of the Institute for Environment – Peace – Development (2010-2016) and Vice-President of the Austrian Sports Federation for the disabled (2010-2016).
Reinhold Lopatka is a passionate marathon runner (Finisher of 100 full marathons). He could win the marathon world championship for parliamentarians in 2003 and in 2005 in the half-marathon.
The 2BS (To Be Secure) Forum is a leading politico-security forum in Southeast Europe (SEE) that has been shaping national, regional, and international security frameworks since its inception in 2011. As the flagship event of the Atlantic Council of Montenegro, it provides an exceptional and unique platform for prominent political figures, as well as international organizations representatives, academia, security experts, business leaders, renowned global think tanks, NGO experts and innovators to generate ideas and solutions to effectively tackle and overcome the prevailing global challenges pertaining to security and stability.