Over the past few decades there has been a significant change in the way we view the development processes of energy services governance in the European Union (EU) and on a national level. The latest analysis has shown that, after the processes of liberalization and deregulation, the former exceptions to the rules of competition in Europe begin to assume different corporate forms, instead of the purely public enterprise, making a shift in the direction of the regulated mixed-economy. From this point of view, the aim of the article is to present an overview of the new public governance approach to delivering electricity services in the EU (the regulatory state) and the effect of it, particularly in the Bulgarian energy sector – the electricity market. The European regulatory model of energy services is a relatively new approach which appeared in the last two decades of the 20th century and it is part of the wider debate about the liberalization of electricity services in the EU. It is going to be used alongside a combination of approaches including institutional, normative and expert analysis in order to better understand the model of regulations in the EU. The results of the paper could help both theoreticians and practitioners to note the fact that the paradigm of supplying energy services nowadays has changed. This leads to different challenges in contemporary public governance as well as on a national level, in which the main goals are to protect the public interest on the one hand, and to facilitate competition on the other.