GSJ Advocaten

Administrative and Environmental Law

As a partner in the firm, Floris Sebreghts and his enthusiastic team focus their energies every day on administrative law, spatial planning and urban development, which is now of course referred to as environmental management law.

Floris is a hard worker who is driven by a desire to work closely with his team and with his clients to ensure accurate, fast and hands-on follow-up of procedures and formalities. In the course of his career he has offered expert advice to many private clients, businesses, property developers and public authorities at every level (municipal, provincial and regional). During that time, he has specialised in following up all kinds of planning and permit applications, from the largest to the smallest.

In addition to following up applications and filing appeals, Floris has conducted key proceedings in the context of administrative appeals (construction appeals lodged with the Provincial Deputation and environmental appeals lodged with the competent Province or Minister, appeals before municipal building commissions, hearings, provincial or regional environmental permit commissions (PMVC & GMVC) now referred to as the environmental management permit commissions, etc.). In addition, he has a wide experience of every kind of appeal before the tribunals and appeal courts (damage claims, suspension of work, planning damage, soil negotiations, zoning offences, natural law, EIA obligation (environmental impact assessment), maintenance/restoration claims, etc.) and the legal courts and councils (the Council of State, the Council for Permit Disputes, the Environmental Enforcement Commission, etc.). In addition to all these areas of expertise, much of Floris's time is taken up with advising and assisting private clients, companies, project developers and government agencies with the construction-related and environment-related aspects that can affect their projects.

As an expert on spatial planning, Floris has published numerous specialised papers and is a regular speaker at seminars. As if that were not enough, he is a regular contributor in key areas of policy support and in the drafting of decrees or implementing decisions (e.g. soil sector funds for petrol stations or the dry cleaning sector, the Deurganckdok project, the temporary emergency bridges over De Singel in Antwerp, the Groeistrand project in Ostend, the coastal defence works, etc.). He is on the editorial staff of the Tijdschrift voor Ruimtelijke Ordening en Stedenbouw (TROS) and of the Tijdschrift voor Omgevingsrecht en Omgevingsbeleid (TOO) and he is a member of the Flemish Association for Spatial Management (VRP), the Environmental Lawyers' Forum and the Society of Lawyers for Public Law (GAP). Last but not least, he is a member of the Municipal Spatial Planning Commission (GECORO) of the municipality of Zoersel.

Since 2010, Floris has worked as an external independent director at Emmaüs, a group that manages many care institutions including hospitals, residential care centres, children’s day-care centres, facilities for persons with disabilities, psychiatric units, etc. In this capacity, he is responsible for the follow-up of legal negotiations concerning construction projects.

• Deputy member GECORO Municipality of Zoersel

• Bovernor Confraternitas SY (association of Catholic magistrates, lawyers, notaries, bailiffs and academics of the Province of Antwerp)

• Driver UDC bv-bvba

• Executive Director VZW Emmaus

• Member of the Elderly Care Management Committee

• Director of the VZW Zoersel Residential and Care Centre

• Director VZW Residential and Care Centre St. Jozef Wommelgem

• Member of the General Assembly of the non-profit association Ivo Cornelis

• Member of the General Assembly of the non-profit association Huize Bethanië

• Member of the general meeting of the non-profit association 'de Grote Robijn'.

• Member of the TROS editorial team (Tijdschrift voor Ruimtelijke Ordening en urbanism)

• Editorial member TOO (Tijdschrift voor omgevingsrecht en omgevingsbeleid)

• Environmental Lawyers Forum

• Association of Lawyers in Public Law (GAP)

• Member Ertborn Group (Meeting CEOs & CFOs)

• Driver in the care sector (Emmaus)

• Member of the Flemish Association for Space and Planning (VRP)

• Steering Committee for Elderly Care Emmaus

• Board of Directors Residential Care Centre "De Buurt" in Zoersel

• Member of the General Assembly numerous other care-related institutions

• Humanities: Latin-modern linguistics, Xavier College Antwerp

• 1998-2001: Diploma candidate in law, UFSIA 

• 2001-2003: Diploma degree in law, UIA 

• Dozens of study days on spatial and urban planning and environmental law