Field of expertise: Journalism

Helmut has an impressive past as a journalist and member of parliament. His heart beats for a united Europe, which he has personally experienced in all its facets. From the negotiations with Spain and Portugal to German reunification to the admission of the former communist countries - Brandstätter has accompanied Europe through change.

He obtained his doctoral diploma in law at the University of Vienna (Dr. jur.), where he studied between 1973-1978. He was also chairman of the Austrian Student Union at the University of Vienna (1977-1979).

His professional background is as a journalist at ORF between 1982-1997, followed by Managing Director at the n-tv news channel (1997-2003). He has further experience as managing partner at Puls TV (2004-2006). He later became the owner of a Communications Agency (2005-2010) and continued his journalistic career as an editor-in-chief and publisher at KURIER (2010-2019).

Currently he is the NEOS spokesperson on Foreign Policy, Research, Innovation and Technology. He has been a Member of the National Council of Austria since 2019.

He has published several books and has received the Ari Rath Honorary Prize for Critical Journalism in 2019.