[1] Stanishev was born in 1966, in Kherson, Ukrainian SSR (Soviet Union), to Dinah Sergeevna Muhina, a Soviet citizen and Dimitar Stanishev [bg; ru; hu; zh], a Bulgarian Communist official who headed the Bulgarian Communist Party's foreign policy department and would later become secretary of the party central committee.

[4] Stanishev subsequently graduated from Moscow State University in 1989 and obtained his candidate degree (PhD-equivalent) in 1994 both in the field of history.

His thesis was entitled "The system of service promotion of high ranking officials in Russia and its evolution during the second half of XIX century".

Stanishev succeed to modernise the BSP, leading it to fill membership to the Socialist International and then to be member of the PES.

[10] In the general election of 25 June 2005 Stanishev was re-elected to the National Assembly, this time for a seat in Burgas.

On 17 August 2005, with an official ceremony on 1 Dondukov Boulevard, Sergey Stanishev took office as Prime Minister.

In June 2008 Stanishev drew criticism from human rights advocates for his remarks regarding Bulgaria's first gay pride parade; the Prime Minister said he did not approve of "the manifestation and demonstration of such orientations.

"[12] Also in June 2008 The Guardian published an article highly critical of planned real estate development in a pristine seacoast area under EU environmental protection.

[14] Later in June 2009, Sergey Stanishev supported Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as EU Commission President.

[15] Stanishev took over the PES leadership as Interim President in late 2011 after his predecessor, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, stepped down from his post.

On 27 July, at the BSP's 48th congress, incumbent chairperson of the National Assembly Mihail Mikov was elected to succeed Stanishev as party chair.

[21] At the summit at which EU's top jobs were discussed Stanishev was proposed as a candidate for President of the European Parliament.

[25] In March 2012, Austrian lobbyist Peter Hochegger was found to have received nearly €1.5 M from the former three-way coalition government for a dubious campaign aimed at boosting Bulgaria's image abroad.

A report indicated that a part of the sum paid to Hochegger's company had returned to the PR agency owned by Monika Yosifova, now Stanisheva, wife of Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev.

[26] A public relations firm led by Stanishev's wife, Monika Stanisheva, won a €60,000 contract for a project to the European elections in Bulgaria.

MEPs from the EPP have rung the alarm bell an "obvious" conflict of interest involving some of the most prominent figures in the European socialist family.