Korneliya Ninova was born on 16 January 1969 in Krushovitsa village, Miziya municipality, Vratsa district, People's Republic of Bulgaria.

From September 2005 to March 2007, Ninova was Deputy Minister of Economy and Energy in foreign economic policy.

Ninova is in a reported conflict with a former BSP secretary and a previous president of the Party of European Socialists Sergey Stanishev.

This was done as the party felt that it had "lost" the 2019 European Parliament election under her leadership, despite the fact that it managed to muster both higher electoral support and an increase in the number of MEPs in comparison to the previous election.

[5] Following the disastrous results of her party's coalition (BSP for Bulgaria) in the 2021 Bulgarian general election.