Sergei Stanishev has been the President of the Party of European Socialists since 2012, and a Member of the European Parliament since 2014.

Born on the 5 May 1966, Stanishev studied history, and later obtained a PhD in this field. He was a visiting fellow in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Stanishev has written more than 50 publications on foreign policy issues in Bulgarian and international periodicals. He is also the author of the 2009 book ‘Because We Are Socialists’. Prior to his political career, Stanishev worked as a journalist.

Stanishev became Head of the Foreign Policy and International Relations Department of the Bulgarian Socialist Party in 1996, and in 2001 was elected as a Member of the Bulgarian Parliament. Later this year, he became the Chairman of the National Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, and was re-elected to this position in 2002, 2005, and 2009. Stanishev served as Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 2005 to 2009, during which time Bulgaria became a member of the European Union. In 2014, he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament.

Between 2002-2009 Stanishev served on the PES Presidency. On the 24th November 2011, he became the interim PES President, and during the 9th PES Congress in September 2012, was officially elected as PES President. He was re-elected to this position in successive Congresses in 2013, 2015, and 2018.

Stanishev’s current priorities for the PES includes promoting and developing the PES alternative to austerity-only policies, creating jobs and investing in sustainable projects to ensure a return to growth, fighting youth unemployment, protecting democracy across Europe and continuing the PES renewal process underway, ‘Our Vision for Progressive Societies in the 21st Century’.